Fencing sees success at Northwestern

Out in Evanston, Ill., both the men’s and women’s fencing teams had solid outings in their matches at the Northwestern Duals.

Princeton’s opponents came from a variety of regions across the country. While a few were from the Big 10, which includes Northwestern, present at the meet were teams from both the east and west coast, as well as from middle America.

Men’s Fencing

The men’s team, ranked seventh nationwide going into this weekend, performed in accordance with its ranking on the first day of the meet. The Tigers were defeated in tightly-contested matches against No. 2-ranked Notre Dame and No. 3-ranked Ohio State, losing to the latter by only one victory. However, they proceeded to win handily their remaining five matches. One of their most impressive results on the day was a victory over No. 10-ranked Stanford, with Princeton eking out a win by one mere victory.

The Tigers saw far greater success the following day. With all the matches against ranked opponents out of the way, the rest of the field would prove easy pickings for the men’s team. In its five matches, the sabre team picked up two clean sweeps. Moreover, the smallest margin of victory for the Tigers on the second day was a hefty 11, against Lawrence University. The largest was an ugly 21 victory differential as the Tigers steamrolled the hapless team from the California Institute of Technology. After the second day, the men ended up with a 10-2 record for the weekend, having swept the rest of the fieldon Sunday5-0.

Women’s Fencing

Similar to the men’s team, women’s fencing performed at a level their ranking would have suggested. Going into the Duals ranked no. 3 in the country, the only loss they would experience on the day was a close bout against Notre Dame, the No. 1-ranked women’s fencing team in the country. After the loss to Notre Dame (the first match of the day), the women’s team exacted their revenge on every other team that they played. They defeated the only other ranked opponent they would see that day, No. 5-ranked Ohio State, and make light work of all their non-rankedSaturdayopponents.

Their performance on the second day outshined their great efforts on the first. The women’s team managed to dispatch the ranked teams they had to face, crushing No. 10-ranked Temple 19-3 and handily defeating No. 9-ranked Northwestern 22-5. In addition, none of the unranked teams the Tigers faced that day proved much of a challenge at all. Thus, the women’s team swept their competition Sunday to the tune of 6-0, and obtaining a fantastic 11-1 record for the weekend as a whole.

The Northwestern Duals certainly looked like a success for the Tigers, but it looks like the match is just the eye before the storm. This was the last competition before the Ivy League Round Robinsthis SundayandMonday, and the other Ivies certainly have their fair share of talent. Along with Princeton, three other Ivy League schools stand in the top ten of NCAA fencing – No. 2-ranked Columbia, No. 6-ranked University of Pennsylvania, and No. 7-ranked Harvard. There is no doubt the Round Robins will put the Tigers to the test.