W. Fencing struggles in rare Hutch tourney

As the Penn women's fencing team entered the tournament on Saturday, they had high aspirations of building upon the momentum that carried them through their victory over Ivy League-rival Princeton in their previous meet. After all the dueling was done, however, Penn had only one victory to show for its efforts in four different meets at Hutchinson Gymnasium. The tournament comprised five teams, including league opponents Cornell and Columbia and two area rivals Penn State and Rutgers. Penn (7-5, 3-3 Ivy League) had the opportunity to turn a mediocre season around, but, once again, they easily defeated the relatively poor and inexperienced Cornell squad but failed to show any emotion in losing to the better teams. "Cornell is comprised of mostly a young and experienced squad," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "We were able to capitalize on their lack of experience. Our foil team fenced well, and the experience in our epee squad allowed us to achieve a relatively easy victory." While Penn was able to post an unimpressive 24-6 victory over a weak Big Red squad, they were unable to fence well against the stronger teams. After the win over Cornell, the Quakers went on to drop three straight meets 18-14, 21-11 and 26-6 against Rutgers, Columbia and Penn State, respectively. All year, Penn has fought with a foil team of mostly freshmen and sophomores. With only junior Cynthia Kwan to rely on for leadership, the inability and inexperience of the foils shined through when the Quakers faced the perennially-strong Penn State and Rutgers teams and Columbia, one of the best teams in the Ivies this year. "If they go into a bout thinking that they are going to lose, then their thoughts become a self-fulfilling prophecy," Micahnik said. "Throughout the meets, we fought half-hearted and that doesn't lead to many victories against opponents that can fence as well, if not better." The coach's sentiment was clearly portrayed, as the Red and Blue were only able to scrounge 11 victories out of a possible 48. Even the usually dependable Kwan succumbed to the theme of the match. She was only able to achieve two victories against the better teams. The lackluster showing by the foils negated any effort that Penn's dependable epee squad could muster. Even though the epee team was able to even the score against most of their opponents, it was of little consequence in determining the overall outcome of the match. The uninspired performances against stronger teams has been evident throughout the year. The Quakers were crushed by undefeated league-rival Harvard earlier in the year and failed to show that they had learned anything from that meet. With the IFA regionals coming this weekend at St. Johns, Penn will need to regain the heart and soul they fought with against Princeton in order to be successful.