This past weekend at the Duke Invitational the Brandeis women’s fencing team struggled, going 1-4 with three of their four losses against nationally ranked teams. The Judges’ only victory was an 18-9 win against Air Force, while their four losses came against top-ranked Penn State 20-7, eighth-ranked Temple 18-9, 10th-ranked Duke 22-5 and North Carolina 14-13.
In their match against Air Force, the Judges won all three weapons. Leah Mack ’14 led the epee squad to a decisive 7-2 victory while going 3-0 in her three bouts, while Kristen Ha ’14 and Eliza Powell ’15 each finished 2-1. All three saberists, Emmily Smith ’13, Zoe Messinger ’13 and Eunice Ko ’14, went 2-1 in a 6-3 victory, while Vikki Nunley ’13 and Hallie Frank ’14 led the foilists to a 5-4 win.
The foil squad also picked up the Judges’ only other squad victory at the tournament, defeating UNC 7-2 as Nunley and Frank each went 3-0 while Jessie Kirshner ’15 picked up Brandeis’ other point in foil. Mack went 3-0 against the Tar Heels in epee action, but the epee squad ultimately fell 5-4. The saber squad failed to make any noise in their bouts as they were defeated 7-2 with Messinger picking up the squad’s only two points.
While the saberists failed to make any noise against the Tar Heels, they had Brandeis’ best performances against the three ranked teams at the tournament. Messinger went 3-0 against Temple in a close 5-4 loss. Nunley also finished 3-0 against Temple in foil action. Nunley also posted two of the team’s seven points against Penn State and was the Judges’ only multiple-point winner, but no fencer managed to post multiple points against the Blue Devils.
For the tournament, Nunley went 11-3 in foil competition while Mack and Messinger finished 9-6 in epee and saber action respectively.
A few days later, the Judges traveled to Harvard for the Beanpot Tournament. The Judges struggled at the Beanpot going 0-3 as they failed to win a single match. Their closest match was against MIT where they lost 16-11. They also fell to Boston College 19-8 and to seventh-ranked Harvard 24-3.
The Judges only had two weapon wins at the tournament. Nunley and Kirshner each went 2-1 to help lead the foil squad past BC 5-4 as Frank won the final bout 3-1 to earn the decisive point.
Against MIT, Ha and Mack went 2-1 while Powell secured the final point with a 5-3 win in the last bout to earn a 5-4 win. Mack and Ha posted the only three points the Judges’ scored against Harvard.
The team will return to action Feb. 25 when they travel to Vassar College for the New England Collegiate Championships.
