Epee squad rallies Tigers

What started out as a promising night against Princeton for the recently hot Penn men's fencing team ended in a disappointingly familiar refrain. The Tigers emerged with a 14-13 victory to gain the upper hand in the Ivy League standings. Last year, the Quakers (4-3, 1-1 Ivy League) dropped a 14-13 match to Princeton (6-0, 3-0) that eventually led to their fourth-place league finish. Saturday's rousing win at Yale looked to be a sign this season would be different. Now, that is still in doubt. Last night's match started out surprisingly well for the Quakers. Consistently strong sabrer George Kalmar showed his poise in pulling out a 5-3 victory over tenacious freshman Graham Brooks. Next, emerging freshman Sanjiv Agashiwala won his seventh bout in a row, upending Princeton's Matt Walsh. Walsh had lost only one other bout this season. Agashiwala was down 3-1 before Coach Dave Micahnik took a timeout. The strategy session rallied the Quaker, who won the next four points and the bout. After sabrer John Demas made it three wins in a row, things couldn't have looked any better for Penn. But for a short while, they did. The foil squad began its successful night by sweeping another three bouts. The winning streak ended, however, when the epee squads took to the fencing strip. Entering last night, the Quakers knew their epee squad had to at least split with its powerful Princeton counterpart if the Quakers were to win. But early on, the Tigers showed their squad would not let Penn achieve its goal. A 3-0 triumph for Princeton in the first epee round narrowed the deficit to 6-3 and, more importantly, shifted the match's momentum. Slowly but steadily, the Tigers clawed their way back into the match. Princeton finally took a 9-8 lead after Penn's Alex Edelman lost an excruciating 5-4 bout to last year's NCAA epee champion Harald Winkmann. Edelman thought he had won when it appeared he had scored the fifth touch. But an equipment failure for Winkmann annulled the point and forced a replay, which the Tiger captured to turn the match around for good. A late Penn run was quenched by Chris Klaus, who ended his perfect night by defeating Edward Cleaver in epee to give his team its 14th win and the match. "Tonight was just very disappointing. It's so frustrating to be on the edge -- to be so close two years in a row and lose both times," an upset Micahnik said. The night was not without its bright spots for Penn. George Kalmar continued his steady play, going 3-0 and accounting for more than half the sabre squad's wins. He and the foil squad kept the Quakers alive during their horrid stretch during the middle of the match. "My bouts weren't pretty, but they were efficient. I just tried to set the tone in the beginning and keep the team in the match," Kalmar said. The biggest stars of the night for Penn were the members of the foil squad. Led by Adam Brown's 3-0 record, foil lost only two bouts on the night while winning seven. It merely picked up where it left off the past two meets and has become an extremely solid squad. Both the coaches and fencers were pleased with the impressive performance but were obviously dissatisfied by the scoreboard's overall tally. "We're very happy with what the foil did, but epee and sabre have the ability to do just as well," Penn assistant Yuanchun Ma said, "We have the potential to be an even stronger team than we were tonight." The Quakers can only hope that Ma's words become prophetic so this 14-13 loss will not see an encore performance.