`Foil Fever' back for M. Fencing

Foil fever has struck again.

On Saturday, the already dominant Penn triumvirate of junior Yale Cohen and sophomores Jeff Breen and Andy Radu swept all 18 of its matches, leading the Penn men's fencing team to victories over Harvard, 18-9, and Rutgers, 15-12.

The foilists have "a very confident frame of mind," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "They're insulted if anyone gets away."

Aside from the foil squad, one of the main objectives this season has been improving a young group of sabres and achieving a balance among the three weapons.

The epee squad lost both of its matches, 5-4, while the sabres defeated Harvard, 5-4, but stumbled against Rutgers, 7-2.

Against Harvard, "we had the balance we were looking for in the sabre and the epee," Micahnik said. "If you're looking at the Rutgers match, we didn't have the same balance, so the meet was closer."

Achieving that consistency is especially important tonight as the Quakers head to Princeton to tackle their third Ivy League opponent of the year.

A solid effort by the foilists alone will not win this one.

"Coming up with Princeton and even more so later on, we're going to be up against harder teams," Micahnik said. "Foil won't necessarily be able to kick so much tail."

At stake against the rival Tigers is the Penn/Princeton Dual-Meet Trophy, which the two teams have been competing for since the early 1950s.

Even more important, however, are the Ivy title implications. One more loss and the Quakers' odds of capturing the league crown nosedive.

"No pressure," Breen said. "It's always a big rivalry, so we go up there, and there's definitely a higher level of excitement than any of the other meets."

With the Red and Blue on a roll heading into New Jersey, Cohen is poised for today's match.

"Our rivalry is comparable to the basketball rivalry but on a lower scale," Cohen said with a smirk. "But we're just as pumped up about it."

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