With her team leading, 13-11, and needing one individual win to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League championship, Penn junior captain Emmanuelle Humblet took to the strip against Columbia's Kathleen Reckling in the foil competition for the Penn women's fencing team.
Humblet came through, beating Reckling, 5-3, to clinch a 14-13 win over the Lions (13-3, 4-1 Ivy) and a share of first place.
A 21-6 win over Cornell (3-7, 0-5) gave the Quakers a 5-0 league record and the outright championship -- Penn's first since 1995.
Penn coach Dave Micahnik was certainly pleased with the season in describing his team's preseason goal.
"Every season's goal is to win the Ivy League," said Micahnik, whose team will travel to the Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships and Regionals in the coming weeks.
While the win over Cornell was the official clincher for the title, Penn's defeat of Columbia in the battle of unbeatens was yesterday's highlight.
"It was a real well-balanced kind of effort," Micahnik said.
It was so well-balanced that only one of Penn's fencers recorded a 3-0 mark on the day. Freshman Holly Buechel finished undefeated, including her dramatic 5-4 win over the Lions' Kim Bush in the last round of the epee bouts.
Penn led, 12-7, needing only two more wins for the victory. However, Columbia won the next four bouts to climb within one and create a frenzied atmosphere at Cornell's Newman Arena.
"It gets real dramatic at that point," Micahnik said.
As tension grew, Buechel defeated Bush in the epee and Humblet delivered infoil to secure the Quakers' victory.
While the final score was 14-13 -- the closest possible -- the teams were even more evenly matched as Penn won a couple of epee bouts in the overtime session.
Columbia, which entered yesterday's competition having won 80 percent of its sabre bouts, met its match in the Quakers' strong sabre squad, and ended up second in the Ivy League.
The Quakers also defeated crosstown foe Temple, 20-7, yesterday, while falling to Penn State by an 18-9 margin.
After going 3-1 on the day, Penn finished the season with a 19-1 overall record.
The Ivy banner is Penn's ninth overall, with every one coming under the guidance of Micahnik.
The coach is quite happy with the 2004 campaign.
"All together not a bad season," he said.
