Columbia upends defending league champion women's fencing, 15-12

As defending Ivy League champions, the women's fencing team went into the first Ivy meet of the season feeling the pressure. The team maintained its high expectations. But in the end, it fell not only to Ivy rival Columbia, but also suffered surprising losses to Rutgers and St. John's.

"One of the reasons our team is so successful is that we are usually very supportive of each other and we have a lot of team spirit," senior captain and epee Mary Dunlop said.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, a great part of that team morale was shaken this past weekend at the Columbia meet, which Princeton lost 15-12. In foil, the team lost 6-3. In epee, the Tigers won 5-4. In sabre, they fell 5-4.

Despite the disappointing loss to the Lions, the Tigers came out with an optimistic view that they may still eventually claim the Ivy title.

"The Ivy title is still up in the air. It's likely that Columbia will lose at least one meet, and we are quite capable of beating all of the other Ivy teams," senior epee Lindsay Campbell said.

Though the loss to Columbia may have been the most disappointing of the Tiger's break defeats, the loss to Rutgers was the most surprising. Had Princeton won just two more bouts, it would have come out with the win.

However, the Tigers fell short and lost to Rutgers 15-12. Princeton got an edge in the foil (5-4) but lost sabre (6-3) and epee (5-4).

The Tigers knew from the beginning that St. John's was a formidable opponent and posed a challenge, which in the end, they could not meet. Despite winning epee (7-2) and sabre (6-3), Princeton lost control of the meet and the win when it was decimated in foil (9-0). St. John's maintained a slim 14-13 advantage.

The foils went in with the biggest obstacles since St. John's and Columbia are both known for their strength in that event.

"Our strongest teammate in foil is [junior] Mindy Rostal, and she went abroad that day, so that was tough. But I think our squad is still very strong, and the freshmen performed really well," sophomore foil Crystal Jiang said.

The sabre squad remained positive, primarily as a result of their relative youth.

"There wasn't a lot of negativity on our part and we went in with a good attitude. [Freshman sabre] Catherine Pack only lost one bout and our attitude was really good the whole way through," said junior sabre squad leader Miya Tokumitsu.

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Epee Maya Lawrence had a successful meet. She won all of her bouts against Columbia.

Many of the problems Princeton faced were due to two unusual conditions. First, the squads were not able to watch the bouts that went before them, making the rankings ambiguous until the very end. Second, the men's team ended up sharing strips with the women's team, which caused confusion.

"We usually watch sabre first, and since they're young, if we have a deficit, we can follow up on that. I think our team strength is our unity, but all of us were definitely feeling pressure," Campbell said.

This weekend at Cornell, Princeton will face off against the Big Red, Fairleigh Dickinson and Vassar. With two major Ivy meets completed, the team will face off against its main competition in the Ivies on Feb. 12, when it hosts Penn in its first big home meet.