Fencing team handles Harvard, Yale team proves too strong

It was a bittersweet ending for both the men's and women's fencing teams this past weekend at their final Ivy meet of the season. As two-time defending Ivy League champions, the teams pulled through to beat Harvard but were unable to defeat Yale. In the end, the women finished third in the Ivies with the men tied for fourth with Harvard.

The men's team ended with a winning score against Harvard, 15-12, but against Yale, the Tigers came out with a loss of 16-11. The women had similar encounters, beating the Crimson 16-11 and losing to Yale 10-7.

Against Harvard, the women's team won sabre 5-4 and epee 9-0. They lost, however, to foil with a score of 7-2. Pitted against the Bulldogs, sabre lost 8-1, foil lost 7-2 and epee pulled through with a win of 7-2.

For the women, it has been a season of surprises and compromises. They lost one of their strongest foil fencers, junior Mindy Rostal, who studied abroad, and relied heavily on their younger fencers, particularly at foil.

Freshman Francisca Albers stepped up to fence foil from epee for the season and another freshman — Inhwa Song — sprained her ankle during Intersession only to sprain the other within the past two weeks.

Seniors Lindsay Campbell and Maya Lawrence led the scoring for epee, finishing the meet undefeated at 6-0. Although the rest of the team may not have fared as well, the women knew that the Elies were going to be a challenge.

"With Yale, we knew we'd have to win all of our bouts because of their strength. It was a matter of experience for foil and sabre. As seniors, [Rostal, Lawrence and I] did everything we could do as individuals and I can't be disappointed," Campbell said.

Yale also had the No. 1 Junior World sabre fencer, so the Tigers were expecting a serious fight.

"Yale is just a ridiculously good team, sabre in particular. We pulled together as a team after our loss to Columbia even though it is hard to see from the scores," senior captain Mary Dunlop said.

The women can now look forward to IFAs, which are the Eastern Championships. They will most likely encounter the majority of schools they have gone up against this season, in addition to many other teams.

The men ended their season with a parallel experience to the women's team. They also had an injury, and after a dismal loss to Columbia the team bounced back for a victory against Harvard despite the disappointing loss to Yale.

"It was a tough season," senior captain Matthew Fitzgerald said. "We didn't do as well as last year and we had one freshman who was injured but we've learned a lot."

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There were, however, standout performances. Junior epee Bill Beaver had a particularly good meet, winning 3-0 against Yale as did sophomore Eric Stodola who won all three foil bouts against the Crimson and two against Yale.

Overall, against Harvard, the men lost in the sabre, 5-4, and won in both the foil and epee — 5-4 and 6-3 respectively. Yale defeated the Tigers in the foil, 7-2, and the sabre, 5-4. Princeton managed to best the Elis in the epee, however, 5-4.

"Harvard was not that strong of a threat but the scores ended up being actually closer than expected, and the same is true for Yale," Jon Jew-Lim said.

Despite the disappointing finish in the Ivies, the Tigers will have their opportunity for revenge at IFAs.

With IFAs, the format is different from what the team is accustomed to. There are A, B, and C strips for each fencer and each fencer only fences in one category.

"IFAs are about physical and mental fortitude. We have the potential to do well. It's a question of keeping up the energy and intensity through the day," Jew-Lim said.

After IFA's individual fencers will vie for NCAA regional titles as well.