M. Fencing edges Yale

Yale and David Cohen led the Quakers past the Elis in the most recent chapter of this unpredictable rivalry. When the Penn men's fencing team faces Yale, anything can happen. And usually, anything does. In 1998, the Elis crushed Penn, 18-9. Then last January, the Quakers exacted some revenge and swept Yale. The score was the same, but the Red and Blue wound up on top. And on Saturday, after a morning full of 5-4 bouts and a see-sawing meet score, Penn edged the Elis for the second year in a row, 15-12. Although Penn was victorious in its Ivy League opener, many of the Quakers were less than thrilled with the victory. "A win's a win," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "But it was an imperfect win, to be sure." While strong performances by Penn's foilists and sabres led the Quakers, the epee event did not go as Penn expected. "Something came over them," senior captain David Liu said of the epeeists. "There were a lot of 5-4 [bouts]." Penn junior Charles Hamann lost two of his bouts by a mere point, but sophomores Jim Benson and Scott Eriksen each won a bout for Penn, pulling the Quakers' epee score up to a meek 2-7. Benson and Eriksen lost their other bouts by close scores of 5-4 and 5-3. While Micahnik described Penn's epee performance as a "major underachievement," he was more satisfied with the foil and sabre performances. Penn junior David Cohen continued his strong season by going undefeated on the day. Penn freshman Yale Cohen, who seemed perfectly comfortable competing against the school that shares his name, made it a good day for the whole Cohen family, winning two bouts with the foil for the Quakers. Liu, who fences both foil and sabre, stepped in as a foil alternate and overcame two left-handed opponents -- a decidedly difficult task. "The whole strategy reverses itself," Liu said. "You have to change your whole mentality to think the other way." Yale's sabres proved challenging to the Quakers as well. Though the Penn sabres edged the Elis 6-3, Penn junior Mike Golia found the competition "pretty tough." Golia had no trouble overcoming his opponents, however, as he bested all three of his competitors 5-1 and remains undefeated for the year. While the Quakers are happy to have won their first Ivy match of the season, Penn had expectations of a bigger margin after last year's 18-9 win over the Elis. The Elis were also slightly disadvantaged this year after having lost several seniors to graduation. To make matters worse, they competed on Saturday without the help of star foilist Ayo Griffin, who was out with the flu. "I don't think we're happy but we're satisfied," Liu said. "Some people failed, and some people picked it up, and that's what a team is for." While the elder Cohen maintains that his team did "pretty poorly," he believes the performance in this meet will motivate the Quakers as they practice for next weekend's meet against four teams, including Ivy rival Brown.

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