W. Fencing battles Columbia in the Lions' Den

the Penn women's fencing team travels to Columbia to face Penn State, Cornell and the host Lions Saturday. The Penn women's fencing team guaranteed itself a winning record for the 1997-98 season with a two-match sweep two weekends ago, but the team still wants to end the year in style in its final meet this Saturday. Penn will travel to Columbia's University Gym to face the Lions, Cornell and Penn State in a quad-meet beginning at 11 a.m. Penn (9-5, 1-2 Ivy League) starts its day off against Columbia, which is returning a very strong team. Lions senior captain Katherine Lane, a two-time All-American and three-time All-Ivy selection, will lead the foil contingent into the match on their home-strip. The deep Lions foil squad features two other All-Ivy selections, as well as freshman Erinn Smart, who, despite just turning 18, has been a member of the U.S. National Team for over a year. "That they added Erinn Smart is scary," Penn senior foil Cynthia Kwan said. Due to Columbia's strength in the foil, the Quakers must garner points against Columbia's less experienced epee squad if they are to win. Nevertheless, Lions freshman Melinda Mellman, who finished 8th in the Cadet section of the Junior Olympics in 1996, is one to watch out for. "If our epee fences as well as they did against Yale, and we're even with the foil, we can win," coach Dave Micahnik said. "I'd be very pleased if we beat them, but not shocked." The road then becomes a little easier for the Quakers as they face Cornell in the early afternoon. Though this is still a significant Ivy match, it will be the easiest of the day. The Big Red (6-7, 0-3) lost 22-10 earlier this year to a Harvard team that the Quakers beat up on, 24-8, two weeks ago. The Big Red, who have lost 19 of the 20 meetings ever between the two schools, including last year's match, 24-8, return six starters. Senior and three-time letter-winner Julia Breitwieser leads a foil team that includes freshman Ellyn Rajfer, who has a 35-16 record this year. Senior Rebecca Watson heads the epee contingent. The day gets a great deal tougher for the Quakers in their last match, when they face an excellent Penn State team. The Nittany Lions, who demolished the Quakers 26-6 last year, has two equally strong squads, with their epee being slightly better than their foil in what Micahnik termed a "toss-up." The Nittany Lions (12-1) have lost only five regular season matches this decade -- they are the defending National Champions. Their lone loss this year was to undefeated Stanford 18-14, and only two teams have managed more than seven points against them. "It shows that they are not unbeatable," sophomore foil Amy Hozer noted. "They should be good matches." The Nittany Lions are led by senior captain foil Claire Jackson. Their epee features two excellent fencers in sophomore Alexandra Korfanty and freshman Charlotte Walker. The latter hails from Australia, and is ranked among the top 10 in the world. Although Micahnik and senior captain Olivia Leon described the Nittany Lions as a "powerhouse", Micahnik added, "We can fence with them." Coming off of an uplifting sweep of Harvard and St. John's on the 7th of February, the team had its first off-week in a month last weekend. This does not appear to have affected the Quakers negatively, though, as team members used this off-time to train and recuperate. Kwan, who was forced out of the loss to Temple three weeks ago with a wrist injury, will be ready to go. "It's good to come to a break [in the season] because of our injuries," Kwan said. The Quaker fencers know they will all need to be ready to go from the outset if they are to come out of this final meet with their first winning Ivy record in two years.