Before the Thanksgiving holiday break, the men’s and women’s fencing teams competed at the Northeast Fencing Conference at Boston College (BC) on Sunday, Nov. 19. The Judges met with significant success at this competition, having earned six wins. The women posted a record of 4-4 and the men went 2-4 for the day against their competitors. The men’s team currently holds a record of 5-12 for the season, while the women have a record of 5-15. 

On the women’s side, they won against Wellesley College, Sacred Heart University, Vassar College and Tufts University, while they lost to BC, Brown University, Wagner College and the Massachusetts Institue of Technology (MIT). 

The men’s team won against Vassar and Wagner while they lost to BC, Brown University, Sacred Heart and MIT. 

With regard to squads, the Judges’ most successful squads were the men’s sabre and women’s epee who each posted four points. The men’s sabre squad won several crucial decisions over Vassar while they also won 6-3 decisions over BC and MIT. They were able to improve their record to 11-6 for the 2023-34 season thus far. The women’s epee also earned three wins off of a 6-3 score and a close decision against Wellesley as well. 

Individually, women’s sabre fencer Olga Sadova ’27 was the Judges’ top performer of the competition as she won at least once against all eight of her opponents. She acquired a total of 14 wins on the day. Closely behind Sadova was Kat Xikes ’26 with 12 wins.

On the men’s side, two Judges produced nine victories on the day; Mark Shamis ’25 and  Matthew Chaves ’27. 

The Judges displayed promising strength at this competition, especially among the first-years. 

Looking ahead, the Judges will go on to host the annual Brandeis Invitational on this Sunday, Dec. 3.