The start of one chapter was the ending of another for the Penn women's fencing team.
While the Quakers opened up their season last Saturday at Weightman Gym against Drew and Sacred Heart, Penn senior Jackie Schramm participated in her final meet with the Red and Blue. She will be graduating in December.
The Quakers made the going-away party for Schramm a fun one, as the women's team beat both the Rangers and Sacred Heart 25-2. The men's team, also in action, beat Drew 19-8 and the Pioneers 23-4.
"I think [the day was] a success," women's coach Dave Micahnik said. "The visitors were strong enough that we had to fence well, and the matches were meaningful."
As expected, both the men's and women's foil teams led the Quakers' charge.
"I feel the foil team is exceptional, as it was last year, and I can only hope that we continue our success that we've done in the years past," junior and reigning All-American Ron Berkowsky said.
Because team captain Michael Galligan, the Quakers' usual No. 1 foilist, did not fence on Saturday, Berkowsky had to step up.
He delivered, going a perfect 6-0 in his bouts.
"Overall, I think I fenced pretty well," Berkowsky said. "I think that the team as a whole did exceptional, for it being the first meet of the year."
The result was that the men's foil team lost only one bout on the weekend.
The women foilists had similar success, sweeping both of their opponents.
Meanwhile, the men's and women's sabre teams also performed well. The men's sabre beat both Drew and Sacred Heart 7-2. The women's sabre team was undefeated against Drew and dropped two versus Sacred Heart.
However, the problem area, as expected, was the men's epee team.
The men fell by one bout to Drew, but beat Sacred Heart 7-2. The women were more successful, with decisive victories over both Drew and Sacred Heart.
"Women's epee is pretty good," said Micahnik. "Men's epee - we've got some issues to deal with. We've got some inexperience and we've got a hamstring [injury]."
Micahnik was referring to sophomore Samuel Monk, who suffered the injury during one of his matches that day.
But despite all of the great individual performances put together by the Quakers, the day belonged to Schramm.
As a farewell present, Schramm fenced in the final bout of the meet with both squads cheering her on.
The senior, who has fenced at both eppe and saber, went 2-1 in her finale at Penn and was in tears after the meet.
"I couldn't focus on anything," she said. "Today was fine until the last bout, where I got a little flustered, but the first two were good."
