W. Fencing ends on a one-win weekend

The Penn women's fencing team had its season come to a disappointing end this past Saturday at Columbia's University gym. Facing three strong teams, including the defending national champion Penn State, the Quakers could only leave New York with a single victory. The Quakers (10-7, 2-3 Ivy League) managed to split their two Ivy matches of the day -- losing to Columbia in the morning, 19-13, but defeating Cornell in the afternoon, 21-11. The Quakers also faced Penn State in this quad-meet, and their cross-state rivals dominated 28-4. The Red and Blue went into the weekend confident coming off a 24-8 Ivy victory over Harvard at home two weeks ago. Unfortunately for the Quakers, the day got off to a bad start, even before competition began. Penn was selected to first face Penn State -- a team that epitomizes domination, having lost just five times this decade. And the team knew it was in for a tough match. The final score, 28-4, easily indicated that the Quakers never knew what hit them. "We probably weren't going to win," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said, "But it should have been closer. [The score] was a bit much." Penn was dominated overall by the Nittany Lions, with both foil and epee losing 14-2. Not a single Quaker won multiple bouts, as the defending national champions improved to 17-1 on the year. "We knew going in they were a powerhouse," freshman epee Kari Coley said. After this inauspicious start to the meet, the Quakers faced the home team, Columbia, for an important Ivy match. The Lions' foil did not give the Quakers a chance, dominating 13-3. The Lions were able to win the foil by this large margin even without the services of their No. 1 -- Columbia freshman and U.S. National Team member Erinn Smart -- who was competing overseas. The Quakers' epee squad was able to post a victory on its side of the meet, 10-6, but it was not enough to offset the extremely strong efforts of the Lions foil. Penn senior captain Olivia Leon, junior Meredith Galto and Coley all went 3-1 for the epee in its victory. "I thought winning the epee would be fine, but [after the loss by the foil] it proved not to be enough," Micahnik said. For their final match of the day, Cornell had expected to defeat a less-experienced Quakers' team. But these expectations proved deceptive. Penn repeated its decisive victory of a year before, winning 21-11. Once again, the Quakers' epee squad did well, with Coley winning all four of her bouts and Leon winning three. Senior epee Emmy Cho, in her final match, won two of three. "It was the last match, so we were pretty pumped up," Coley said. "We had fenced well against Columbia, so it was a gradual thing." The Quakers' foil squad was able to bounce back from their two earlier big losses and post a 9-7 win. Junior Agnieszka Gromulska posted three wins for the Quakers. Big Red freshman Ellyn Rajfer swept the Quakers, though, improving her season record to 39-16. "The matches were winnable if we were at our top form," Micahnik said of the quad-meet. "I'm not altogether satisfied, but? the other teams were good." Facing two tough teams -- Penn St. and Columbia -- back to back can be disheartening at best; but even so, the team just didn't seem to have it this weekend. True, the Quakers attained the same Ivy League record as a year ago and improved their overall number wins, but the Quakers -- especially the seniors -- still would have loved to have left Columbia last Saturday with more than one victory.

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