Eight-time national champion Penn State tops men's fencing

Men's fencing traveled to Rutgers University last weekend to take on Penn State, North Carolina and NYU.

Heading into Sunday's quad-meet, the Tigers were looking to avenge last season's lost to perennial powerhouse Penn State.

"Wehave almost beaten them in the last couple years. Last season we lost 15-12," sophomore Ben Weber said.

The Nittany Lions are by far one of the best teams Princeton will face all year.

The Nittany Lions have been so good in recent years, the word dynasty fails to do them justice. Penn State's fencing team has dominated college competition over the past two decades, finishing second to St. John's at the 2001 NCAA championships. Coming into this season, the Nittany Lions own a total of eight national titles.

Under head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov, Penn State has finished in the top three in the nation 17 times, and no lower than runner-up in the past 12 years.

The Tigers expected to have their hands full heading into the bout against Penn State, which is exactly what they got.

"We expect to win every time out, and we knew Penn State would be one of our best opponents all year aside from St. John's," senior captain Matt Fitzgerald said.

The Nittany Lions defeated Princeton 18-9, but look for both teams to improve greatly in the near future. The Tigers are still awaiting freshman foil Scott Sherman's return to the starting lineup.

"The foil squad looked strong, but Scott Sherman is out and that really hurts us," sophomore epee Soren Thompson said.

Princeton's second bout of the day was against the Tar Heels. The Tigers were too much for North Carolina, cruising to a 25-2 victory. This time, the Tigers were not at full strength by choice. Since the Tar Heels did not pose much of a challenge for Princeton, some of the team's reserve fencers had an opportunity to gain valuable experience.

The final match of the day, against the Violets, proved to be a much tougher challenge for the Tigers. One year ago Princeton defeated NYU by a comfortable 16-11 margin. This season's bout was anything but comfortable, coming down to the wire. The Tigers stumbled early, but recovered to claim a narrow 14-13 victory over their rivals from the Big Apple.

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"We were a little overconfident going into the NYU match, after thrashing North Carolina," Weber said.

The Violets are much improved from last year.

"NYU has an incredible foil team, so we knew that our epee and sabre squads would really have to step up," Fitzgerald said.

But while epee and sabre delivered, in the end it was the foil squad that stepped up. After sabre and epee competition, Princeton and NYU were deadlocked at 9-9. Then the Tigers' foil squad took two of three matches, nudging Princeton ahead, 11-10. Ultimately, the Tigers' win was sealed by the gutsy performances of the epee squad in the final round.

"I was really impressed with [freshman foil] Brandon Lafving, who won two huge bouts, and then Soren [Thompson] came through in the end," Fitzgerald said.

"[Head coach Michel Sebastiani] was very excited to beat NYU. A lot of fencers came through in one-touch-wins situations," Thompson said.

"Our fencers gained some great experience coming through in the clutch against NYU, which is big since our matches with Penn and Columbia are also going to be really close," Fitzgerald said.

Thompson went 8-0 on the day, avenging his three losses to Penn State last season. Junior sabre Ed Chou finished 8-1 as Princeton finished with a 2-1 record for the day.