W. Fencing result not telling of the competitive matches

The Penn women's fencing team could only muster one victory against tough competition at last Sunday's quad-meet in Princeton, N.J. Its 1-2 record, however, doesn't accurately reflect how tight all three matches were. An 11-point tie-breaker loss in total touch differential placed Penn (1-2, 0-1 Ivy) on the losing end of a 16-16 split with Princeton. "We knew coming in that Princeton had a tough epee squad, and I thought if we won six or seven epee matches, we'd have a chance to win the meet," said Penn coach Dave Micahnik. "We did [post six victories] but unfortunately, some team members couldn't get it going." Princeton posted a 10-6 victory in their marquee event. Senior Caitlin Rich picked up where her 29-1 1996-97 season concluded, with four victories over Penn. "Princeton definitely had a strong epee team," said senior epee Emmy Cho. "Rich scored a lot of touches." Penn, however, almost managed to overcome the strong Tigers epee showing by posting a 10-6 victory in the foil. Junior Agnieszka Gromulska won all four of her foil matches, and sophomore Margo Katz won three more as the Quakers showed their strength in this event. But Penn fell short in the tie-breaker, total touches, 116-105. While it didn't come down to a tie-breaker, the Quakers' second match against Rutgers was almost as close. Despite taking seven of 16 points from a strong Rutgers foil team, the Red and Blue ended up on the wrong end of a 17-15 decision. Junior epee Meredith Galto turned around a winless first round to go 4-0. However, Cho and freshman Tamar Yemini struggled against the Scarlet Knights in what was supposed to be the Quakers' stronger event. The foil proved to be much the same story. Gromulska and Katz duplicated their Princeton efforts to pick up all seven Quakers wins, but the other Quaker foils could not keep pace with the team leaders. "We needed more from her," said Micahnik of senior foil Cynthia Kwan. "We needed a balanced performance from the foil team, but the three and four spots didn't contribute." The Quakers foil team was able to steady its performance in the day's last match. In a solid 18-14 victory over North Carolina, Penn dominated the event, winning 11-5. Gromulska was handed her day's only loss, as both she and Katz won three of four bouts. Sophomore Amy Hozer finally got her touches in as well, winning two in the foil. The Quaker epee team won only seven of its 16 matches, but with the foil team dominating, the epee's outcome didn't change the result. It's clear that a tough first meet of the 1997-98 season will be a good example for fencing -- an example that will show the team that consistency across the board can turn their future close matches into victories.

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