Last weekend's opening sweep of St. John's, NYU and Haverford gave the Penn women's fencing team well-deserved confidence. A perfect Thursday night against Rutgers and Vassar furthered the team's belief it is potent. But Saturday's 17-15 defeat of Yale and 29-3 thrashing of Cornell in New Haven is outright confirmation that this team is among the elite in all of women's fencing. Led by Anastasia Gunzburg's perfect 8-0 record in epee bouts and a superb all-around effort by the foil squad, the Quakers jumped out to an early 2-0 record in the Ivies. Going into this meet, Penn knew it would have to attack Yale's improved foil squad while winning enough epee bouts to stay close. It followed through on both goals and then some. Epee managed a 7-9 record, while the foil squad surprised Yale 10-6 to gain the win. The key to the foil's success was the ability of all four starters to fence well and produce wins. Megumi Sakae, Sarah Johns and Christina Kim all finished 3-1, while freshman Cindy Kwan's win came against respected National Junior Team member Maggie Super. "The way the entire foil squad fenced today is a big story," Coach Dave Micahnik said. "They were all great. I was very impressed. It was a total team effort." Epee also had a well-rounded attack. The young squad is constantly improving and holding its own against more experienced schools. Princeton is the next obstacle to Penn's perfect record as it comes to Philadelphia today. The Tigers are also among the top in the Ivy League, but it seems like a brick wall is the only thing that can stop this Penn roll. "With the way we're fencing as a team, there's really nothing that should keep us from another Ivy title," Johns said.
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