Coming off a 5-0 sweep meet at Brown University, the men’s fencing team returned to battle again at the Eric Sollee Invitational at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The team could not hold on to the winning streak, however, and ended the Invitational with a 3-3 record. The team walked away with wins against Stevens Institute of Technology, Haverford College and Yeshiva University.
The Judges began the day taking an 18-9 win over Stevens, with foil and saber providing eight wins each toward the score. Kyle Berney ’18 provided three wins in the saber event, while four other fencers provided 2-0 scores.
After dropping matches against Duke University and conference opponent New York University, the men’s team earned another two wins against Haverford and Yeshiva. The match up against Haverford ended up tight, with Brandeis pulling out the win by one point, 14-13. All three events—saber, foil and epee—were similarly won by one point, respectively. The Judges won in the saber and foil events, while Haverford took the epee event, each at 5-4.
The Judges momentum continued into the next match, beating Yeshiva 24-3. Saberists went undefeated, giving Brandeis a 9-0 lead from the first event. Foil and epee also won by high margins, winning at 7-2 and 8-1, respectively.
The women’s team exited the Invitational with a winning record for the meet at 4-2. The team defeated Stevens, Haverford, Yeshiva and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The women began the day with a 16-11 win against Stevens. The showing included three undefeated fencers, Liz Feller ’18 in epee, Jessica Gets ’20 in foil and captain Nina Sayles ’17 in saber.
Unfortunately, the Judges fell to Duke in the next round, 2-25. The two wins also came from Feller and Gets. After another loss to NYU, the Judges turned it around and won the next three rounds.
Feller went 9-0 for the last three rounds, while Sayles also made a significant contribution, going 8-1 overall for the final three rounds and making appearances in both the saber and epee events. The Judges as a team made a particularly good showing against Yeshiva, winning the match 25-2.
Feller earned the University Athletic Association’s Athlete of the Week. The junior tallied 15 total wins throughout the meet, while only dropping three rounds to opposing teams.
The women’s team’s next appearance on the strip will be Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Fairleigh Dickinson University Invitational. Opponents at this tournament will be Long Island University Post, Wagner College, Temple University, Johns Hopkins, Hunter College, and Drew University. Both teams will then compete in the Beanpot Tournament at Boston College on Wednesday, Feb. 15, where they will face off against Boston College, Harvard and MIT.
