Fencing squads stumble at Yale, recover in Boston

This past weekend, the Penn men's and women's fencing teams travelled to New England to participate in a number of head-to-head competitions, including an Ivy League matchup against two strong Yale teams in New Haven, Conn. Both the men and women stumbled in their first league matches of the season, but rebounded to post dominant victories in Boston and make the trip successful. Penn's men's team (5-2, 0-1 Ivy League) fell to Yale (4-1, 2-0) by a score of 18-9. The Quakers' strong foil squad was anything but, as the foils won only two of their nine bouts. Freshman Cliff Bayer and senior captain Adam Harris each won one bout for the Quakers. For Bayer, it was especially disappointing losing to his Olympic teammate and Yale freshman Peter Devine. "It just wasn't a good performance for the foils," said Penn freshman foil James Lyons, who did not win a bout against Yale. Neither the sabres nor the epees could salvage the meet for the Quakers. The epees lost 5-4, with Alex Edelman and Jon Wright each posting two victories, while the sabres fell 6-3. Junior sabre Sandy Agashiwala looked impressive for the Red and Blue, as he was the only sabre to post two victories. The Red and Blue women (5-2, 0-1) fared no better than the men. They fell to a the women fencers of Yale, 22-10. Only freshman Margo Katz and junior Cynthia Kwan posted wins for the foils. The balance was much better in the epee bouts, splitting 8-8. Emmy Cho won three of four, while Quakers captain Liz Cornfield and Meredith Galto each won two bouts. Saturday morning, the women travelled to a competition at MIT. Penn went 3-1 for the day, defeating Boston College, Brown and North Carolina while losing to New York University in the unique round-robin setup. Against Boston College, the women dominated the match, winning 24-8. UNC and Brown provided stiffer competition. The Quakers defeated the Tar Heels 17-15, and tied Brown 18-18. However, the match was awarded to Penn on touches. The epees put forth a combined record of 30-34 in the four matches without Cornfield. Despite the average performance from the epees on the day, the strength of the foil team carried the Quakers to their three victories. On Sunday, the Penn men's team went 5-0, going deep into the rotation and getting victories from many different fencers. Of the five teams that the Quakers defeated, none of them was an Ivy League opponent. However, the matches still count as victories for the team, and will be counted in the final tally used to determine which fencers participate in the postseason equivalent of "March Madness." The five victories came against Brandeis, New York University, UNC, Boston College and MIT. Against Brandeis, the Quakers won 18-9. Against NYU, the foils showed strength for the first time all weekend, winning all nine of the bouts. Penn coach Dave Micahnik used three freshmen in the match, substituting Rick Bernstein in for Adam Harris, giving everyone a glimpse at the future of Penn men's fencing. In the 21-6 win against UNC, the epees stole the show, winning all nine of their bouts. Finally, in the 20-7 win over MIT, the sabres finally broke through with eight victories. Micahnik began substituting and rotating the lineup early in the day to give some other fencers experience. "I had no problem going to other guys to get them in or if others weren't getting the job done," Micahnik said. Despite falling to Yale on Friday night, the Penn men more than redeemed themselves on Sunday.