Fencing visits Boston

With a hectic weekend ahead, the Penn men's and women's fencing teams hope to foil their opponents plans for victory. In the well-balanced Ivy League, every dual meet is important, and since both Quakers teams have excellent chances to win the Ivy League title, each meet takes on added significance. The women's team, with a record of six wins and one loss, heads into their upcoming weekend schedule with high expectations. The Quakers face Harvard in an Ancient Eight dual meet Saturday at 10 a.m. and later that afternoon will have to contend with Ohio State and Northwestern at Brandeis University. The men's fencers also compete against Harvard Saturday at 10 a.m., while Sunday they take on Ohio State, MIT, Yeshiva and Notre Dame at MIT. Both teams are coming off disappointing losses to Yale last weekend. The men barely dropped a meet to the Elis, falling by a score of 14-13 after losing the final match on the last touch. It was Penn's first loss of the season after four straight wins. The women's team came equally close to victory, but, like the men, fell one bout short. The Quakers epee team dominated Yale, but it was not enough to overcome the foil team's 12-4 loss. Having finished last season ranked No. 7 in the nation, both teams hope to come away from this weekend undefeated. "Harvard has some good fencers," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "[But they] didn't have enough depth to challenge." The men will face their toughest competition from national-power Notre Dame. The Quakers will be led by captain Nathan Anderson, who leads the foil squad, and 1995 Ivy League sabre champion George Kalmar, who Micahnik described as "ultra-macho." Against the Crimson, Penn's biggest challenge will come from Paul Baez, Harvard's top epee. Baez will pose a challenge for Penn's two best epee fencers, Alex Edelman and Ed Cleaver. Edelman was also concerned with Ohio State, which he says usually has at least one experienced foreign import. The women, who compete only in foil and epee (men compete in sabre, foil, and epee), will receive their greatest challenge from Northwestern. "Northwestern is somewhat of a sleeper team, and they can be very troublesome," Micahnik said. "I don't intend to take them lightly."