In a competitive match against Wellesley College on Wednesday at home, the women’s fencing team prevailed to go 17-10, bringing their season record to 8-5.
The meet began with Jackie Hammond ’17 scoring the first touch on the saber strip and beating Jasmine Davis 5-0. Following on the saber squad was Deb Abiri ’16, who won 5-4 over Dania Wright. Abiri was successful in her next two bouts, which was an improvement over her previous record against Wellesley. Having fenced them in November, Abiri went 2-1, but was 3-0 on Wednesday.
Nina Sayles ’17 closed the saber squad’s first round with a victory, allowing her opponent, Alice Xu, only one touch. Hammond and Abiri fenced twice more and Sayles fenced one more time, all going undefeated. The penultimate bout belonged to Jessie Kirshner ’15, but she fell to Davis. While the epee and foil squads lost and won by one bout each respectively, the saberists brought Wellesley to its knees, with the Judges going 8-1.
Sonya Glickman ’16 started for the epee squad. Her opponent Charlotte Treadwell won, however, by a score of 5-2.
The squad’s score then turned around to 1-1 under Gwen Mowell ’16. She and Kathryn Ledbetter of Wellesley were tied 4-4 when the clock ran out after three minutes, and the referee tossed a coin to determine which fencer received priority. Priority dictates that the winner of the coin toss, in this case Mowell, wins the bout if neither fencer scores a touch or if the pair scores only double touches in the one-minute overtime. This advantage was unnecessary for Mowell since she got a touch within the minute and won instantly, 5-4. Glickman also fenced a bout into overtime, and while she too had priority, she was victorious without it.
Alexis Gremillion ’16 was victorious in another epee bout, coming out on top, 5-2. Epeeist Eliza Powell ’15 lost both of the bouts she fenced, and Rose Zhang ’16 lost her sole bout. Eventually, Wellesley’s epeeists beat the Judges 5-4.
The foil squad started on a high note, as Caroline Mattos ’16, Emilia Dwyer ’16 and Vikki Nunley ’14 defeated Wellesley in the first round. Although Mattos outscored her opponent 5-0, the result showed as 5-1. This was the consequence of Mattos’ equipment failing and delaying the bout, allowing the referee to award Mattos a red card, which resulted in a point for her opponent at the beginning of the bout. Annie Kim ’16 lost in a hard-fought 4-5 bout, during which she advanced her opponent to the end of the strip for the Brandeis fencer’s first touch. She came back strong, however, to clinch the third round and the squad’s victory of 5-4 despite Eva Ahmad ’16 and Chaya Schapiro’s ’17 losses.
Both the women’s and men’s fencing teams will travel to Boston College on Saturday where they will face several schools, including crosstown rivals Boston College and Tufts, and have the chance to improve their records.
