W. Fencing ready for day-long fight

A strong challenge awaits the Penn women's fencing team at tomorrow's multi-meet at Penn State University. In a one-day event that constitutes a third of their season, the Quakers (1-2, 0-1) will face five very competitive teams within a nine-hour span. The Quakers will face Stanford at 8:30 a.m., followed by Haverford, Air Force, Duke and New York University in 90-minute intervals beginning at 11:30 a.m. Since Penn St. and the Quakers have a regularly scheduled meet later this season, the two will not face off in this competition. The powerful Cardinal foil team roster lists one Olympian, Felicia Zimmerman, and two other very strong fencers, Monique de Bruin and Uta Breden. "Facing Stanford first will be tough," said coach Dave Micahnik. "If we win, it'll be wonderful, but if not, it'll still be a great warm-up for the rest of the day." Micahnik continued, "Air Force tends to have less experience, and works within a system.? Haverford is inexperienced as well." NYU was the only one of the five teams Penn faced last year. The Quakers ended up on the losing side of an 18-14 decision. The fencing team, which suffered two disappointing close defeats in its three match multi-meet in December, is out trying to improve its consistency. Junior Anastasia Gromulska and sophomore Margo Katz, who went a combined 20-4 in the foil in that first meet, will be relied upon to do well against some substantially stronger competition. "Expectations will certainly be higher now for our foil," Micahnik commented, adding that "the team outcome as a whole will depend on who we fence, not just which event." The epee will need to step up as well, especially against Stanford and Duke. In light of the strength of the Cardinal's foil team, this is the event where Penn must come through. Duke is a similar team to North Carolina, whose epee defeated Penn 9-7. Though the epee didn't fair well, the final result was a 18-14 Quakers victory. A help to the epee may come in the form of freshman Kari Coley. Coley, who was ineligible for the first meet of the season, is coming off a 10th place finish in a Junior World Cup event over winter break. Also over break, the Red and Blue held a six-day camp after the New Year to help the team train and prepare for its upcoming meets. Most of the men's and women's teams spent four hours a day together on the fencing strip. "We fenced everyone who came in," said senior foil Cynthia Kwan, adding that, "I'm pretty impressed with our work over the past week." However, unlike in years past, the team's camp did not lead directly into its first meet of the New Year. Since a Junior National Event was held last weekend, college meets weren't held to avoid conflicts. This forced Penn to condense its schedule and led to this unusually large seven-team event. Having this experience of fencing in a larger tournament setting for an entire day is not lost on Micahnik. "It will be good conditioning, both physically and mentally," said Micahnik. "All of the matches count. "Even though they're not in our League, they'll help determine our position in postseason tournaments." For each fencer to see four opponents on each team on a single day will be tough, but the team is prepared. "We can't think about the entire day at once," said senior foil Cynthia Kwan. "We'll just take it step by step and adjust as we go along." "When the bell rings, we'll be out there ready to compete," said Micahnik.