Tigers split matches at H-Y-Ps

In light of their high expectations heading into last weekend's H-Y-P meet in Cambridge, Mass., the mixed emotions the fencing team felt at the end of the matches against Yale and Harvard were understandable. Both Tiger teams recorded victories over Yale and fell to Harvard.

"I guess the Harvard match was a little disappointing," sophomore foil Sara Jew-Lim said. "It is a big deal playing our rivals, Yale and Harvard, and we would have liked to come out with two wins in the meet."

The men's squad (6-3 overall, 2-2 Ivy League) topped Yale (3-6, 0-4), 16-11, but dropped a tightly contested 14-13 match to Harvard (9-1, 4-1).

"I thought [the weekend] went pretty well, but we had a tough loss to Harvard," sophomore Alejandro Bras said. "It really could have gone either way; it was such a close-fought match. We fenced pretty confidently against Yale, and it was much easier than our Harvard match."

Against Harvard, Bras tied his first bout and won his next two in the foil, and freshman Douglas Hohensee also won two foil bouts. In the épée division, senior Soren Thompson went 3-0 for the Tigers, but Harvard and Princeton ended up each winning four points overall.

Ultimately, however, Princeton's normally solid sabre proved to be the team's downfall. The Tigers gave up seven points to the Crimson while only picking up two points off wins from junior Owen Cornwall and freshman John Winnerman.

"Sometimes you bring the best you have and the calls just don't go your way," Cornwall said. "14-13 is as close as it gets. After our heartbreaking loss to Harvard, we collected ourselves in time to deliver our annual beating of Yale. They have some good fencers, but not enough to overcome strong showings by the foil and sabre squads in support of our juggernaut epée fencers."

Indeed, in the Yale match-up, Princeton breezed past the Elis. Junior Benjamin Solomon posted a 2-1 record in the epée while Cornwall and Winnerman each went 2-1 in the sabre. Meanwhile, Bras, Hohensee and senior Scott Sherman each went 2-1 in the foil.

Extreme deja vu

While the women's squad (8-5, 2-3) experienced the same results as the men's team, both their matches were more lopsided — the Tigers downed Yale (7-3, 2-3), 18-9, but were demolished by Harvard (12-0, 6-0), 19-8.

In the Yale bout, sophomore Erin McGarry finished with a 3-0 record in the epée, and junior Jacqueline Leahy and Jew-Lim posted 3-0 records in the foil. Two other sophomores, Mina Morova and Elan DiMaio, were a perfect 3-0 as well in the sabre weapon class.

While Leahy posted a 2-1 record in the foil, and junior Kira Hohensee and McGarry won two bouts in the épée, their opposition's sabre division again provided the crucial points for the Crimson. The Tiger women, like the men, were blown out, 7-2. Only junior Caroline Block and Morova were point-winners.

"We were fencing pretty well, but Harvard had a really strong day," Block said. "Harvard has been recruiting very heavily over the past couple of years, and they were a little stronger than us in our match."