W. Fencing rebounds at home

One touch. That was the difference between victory and heartbreak for the Penn women's fencing team in a narrow defeat to Rutgers in the first match of the three-match Penn Multi-Meet on Saturday. Penn's match with the Scarlet Knights came down to just one bout between Penn freshman epeeist Kim Linton and Roppa Rangi of Rutgers. In an intense battle of will and determination, Rangi pulled out a 5-4 win as the Jerseyites escaped with a narrow 14-13 victory over the home Quakers. "Whenever I face [Rangi], it always goes down to the last touch," a disheartened Linton said. "I was very disappointed because I rushed the end of the bout. I was really hoping to win." The down-to-the-wire nature of the final bout was particularly disappointing for the Red and Blue. "It's unfortunate that it came down to the last touch in the last bout, because then you look back and play 'what if' with all the other bouts in the match," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. But after the tough loss, the Quakers did not roll over and die as they could have. In fact, they did exactly the opposite. The rejuvenated Quakers came back to defeat Duke 18-9 and demolish Haverford 26-1 to end the day with a respectable record of 2-1. "We got off to a rocky start against Rutgers, but once we got to Duke, we were ready to go," Penn freshman sabre Christina Verigan said. "We got our minds back on track, fixed our mistakes and ended the day doing really well." Among the bright spots for the Red and Blue was the performance of their sabre squad. Since this was the first year the NCAA has allowed women to fence sabre, it was hard to predict how Penn would fare. But the Red and Blue's sabre trio of Verigan, senior captain Heba Abdulla and sophomore Abby Lifter did very nicely on Saturday, losing only one bout against Duke and none against Haverford. The sabres ended the day with an overall record of 21-6. "I was apprehensive about what to expect, but I realized that the other schools were in the same boat as us starting a new weapon," Lifter said. "I think we met the other team's challenges well, and our performance is a good sign for the future of women's sabre." "The sabre squad rocked the party that rocked the body," added a delighted Abdulla, who won eight of her nine bouts. While the sabres led the way for the Quakers, Penn's epee squad of Linton, senior Sandra Yens, sophomore Mindy Nguyen and freshman Julia Blank also excelled, winning all three of its matches and finishing the day with a record of 19-8. The squad was led by Yens and Linton, who each only lost one bout, posting impressive 8-1 records. The foil squad comprised of seniors Margo Katz and Amy Hozer and freshmen Lauren Staudinger and Stacey Wertlieb, however, did not fare quite as well as the other weapons. They were unable to defeat the foilists from Rutgers and Duke, losing 5-4 to both. Katz and Wertlieb were both very disappointed with their performances and Katz voiced her displeasure. "I'm not happy with my individual performance because I haven't fenced competitively in a while," Katz said. "But the team as a whole did well. For the first meet of the season, I was very happy with the team's performance." Micahnik, despite being visibly upset after the loss to Rutgers, also seemed satisfied with the team's showing for their first regular season meet. "We got some good results, and it was a good learning meet for all of our fencers," Micahnik said. The Quakers will return to action on Saturday in a home meet against Yale and North Carolina.