After upset win, Cornfield leads W. Fencing vs. Yale

The Quakers defeated St. John's at home last week. Penn's women's fencing team met two schools last Friday at Weightman Gymnasium. Fencers from Fairleigh Dickinson cancelled at the last minute, but the Quakers beat St. John's, 17-15, and Temple, 18-14. "St. John's had only three women per squad, but they were a very strong team, and Temple was easier than previous years," Quakers captain Liz Cornfield said. According to Penn fencing coach Dave Micahnik, Temple had one injured fencer, and there were some who did not fence as well as the Quakers had expected. Nevertheless, the team put forth a good joint effort. According to Micahnik, different Penn fencers were coming through at different times. In fact, Meredith Galto lost only one bout. The biggest upset of the match was Nicole Dygert's defeat by Cornfield. Dygert was a United States national silver medalist two years ago, and beating her is a big accomplishment. "I didn't expect to really beat her, because no one ever beats her. I just went in to fence and ended up defeating her," Cornfield said. The Quakers will be meeting Yale tonight in the Weightman Gym. The team members feel that it is going to be a tough match, but if everyone gives 100 percent then they have a good chance of winning. "It is the most important meet of the season thus far because it is an Ivy League school," Cornfield said. Micahnik contends that Yale had a good recruiting year and that he expects the meet to be difficult. "They have a very good team and they will be hard to beat," Micahnik said. The Quakers will be fencing at MIT on Saturday. While there, they will be meeting North Carolina, New York University, Brown and Boston College. Micahnik expects NYU to be the toughest, followed by UNC, Brown and B.C. The coach expects the women's team to win at least three out of the four matches and if they are sharper then that's even better. "The goal is to beat everyone, but we're good enough to win three for sure," Micahnik said.