MIT hands M. Fencing first loss

The Quakers' hopes for an undefeated season ended as the Engineers stunned Penn. At Sunday's Brandeis Multi-Meet in Waltham, Mass., MIT didn't just ruin Penn's perfect 8-0 season -- they also beat the Quakers for the first time in the Red and Blue's nearly 100 years of competition. The 15-12 loss to the Engineers came as a complete surprise since the Red and Blue did not even anticipate that MIT would be the toughest competition at the meet. Last year, Penn handled MIT with ease, beating them 20-7. "They were better than last year," Penn sophomore epeeist Scott Eriksen said. "It was a surprise. We didn't take them seriously enough right off the bat, and that hurt us." Penn sophomore sabre Jeff Lee agreed, regretting that the Quakers were "overconfident." "We were all expecting to [beat MIT]," he said. "They were a decent team and some of us weren't fencing as well as we could have. It was a tough loss for us." The Engineers have been improving steadily over the last few years. "Their coach [Jarek Koniusz] is very good," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "It's surprising that they weren't better before, but they're starting to put it together now." The Quakers started their day off by edging Brown, 19-8. Penn then had a round off and was ready to fence MIT when an unplanned 30-minute lunch break was called. Micahnik believes the meet's disruptive scheduling may have played a role in the Quakers' loss, though he recognizes that "it's not an excuse." Though the Quakers' foil squad ended up a disappointing 3-6, and the epeeists finished with a 4-5 record, sabres Mike Golia, Daniel Vincent and Lee pulled out a 5-4 victory in their event. MIT was the only team that gave the Quakers much trouble. Even though Penn's victory over Brown was not apparent until the middle of the last round, the Quakers ended up winning by double digits. Penn's foilists made quick work of the Bears with an impressive 8-1 win. Penn junior foilist David Cohen took his opponents, 5-1, 5-0, 5-1. Penn senior captain David Liu went undefeated as well, while Penn senior James Lyons won two of his three bouts. Solid victories by Penn epeeists Eriksen, Jim Benson and Charles Hamann led to a 7-2 epee victory. The Quakers' sabre squad, however, had a little more trouble. While Golia won two of his three bouts against Brown, his loss to Paul Freedman ended his season-long winning streak. The Quakers' NYU meet came right after fencing MIT, which proved to be advantageous for Penn. "By the time we got to NYU, we were mad and we took them," Micahnik said. NYU, which the Quakers had anticipated to be their toughest competition on Sunday, fell to Penn, 18-9. The Quakers were still fired up when they fenced Brandeis, overcoming their host by a score of 18-9. One particularly impressive victory was logged by Penn sophomore sabre Vincent. Vincent edged Brandeis senior captain Tim Morehouse -- whose record includes finishing sixth at last year's NCAA nationals -- in a tough 5-2 bout. Also offering a notable performance on Sunday was Quakers freshman epeeist Javier Garcia-Albea, who went 5-1 for the day, beating top NYU epeeist Ranjit Singh. "Garcia-Albea is starting to get himself together," Micahnik said. "He was a little nervous at the start of the season but he's getting into the swing of it. He's starting to show some quality." While Micahnik would like to have another shot at MIT tomorrow, the Quakers have no such luck. Their schedule only gets tougher as they approach meets with Harvard, Princeton, Penn State and St. John's -- all schools that Micahnik described as "killers." "After Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, I'll decide how good a season we've had," he said.