Women's fencing goes 3-0, 2-2 at invitationals

In preparation for their final conference meet this coming weekend, the Tufts women's fencing team traveled to Wellesley and MIT to compete in two invitational meets finishing with a 3-0 record Saturday and 2-2 on Sunday. Although exhausted after a grueling two-day schedule, the team was enthusiastic about their most recent performances.

On Saturday, Tufts competed against Smith, Wellesley and Vassar at the Wellesley Invitational, displaying superior fencing techniques en route to an undefeated day. On Sunday, the women met much stiffer competition at the MIT Invitational against Duke, University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania and New York University, finishing the day with an admirable 2-2 record.

While Saturday's meet did not match the Jumbos against conference rivals, it provided a great tune-up for the team, especially for the younger, less-experienced fencers. In years past, the Tufts team had fenced hard but came up just short at Wellesley. This year, however, the team was able to put together a strong meet from start to finish, with each class of weapon contributing to the overall victory.

The win was especially encouraging given the fact that Tufts used many second-string fencers who were more than up to the difficult challenge.

"With our second string team, we were able to win the Wellesley Invitational," epeeist senior co-captain Frances Harper said. "An accomplishment we didn't achieve last year with our first string."

The three classes of weapons (epee, sabre, and foil) each won against two of the three opponents including an 8-1 victory for the epeeists over Smith, a 9-0 for the sabrists over Wellesley, and an important 5-4 victory for the foilists over Vassar.

On Sunday, the Jumbos traveled to MIT to take on more prestigious competition. With teams coming from all over the east coast, the teams Tufts faced were that much harder than the previous day, but once again, the women's fencing team flexed its muscles. Among the highlights of the invitational was a solid victory over NYU with a score of 16-11.

While the win was a complete team effort, the sabre squad highlighted the charge with an 8-1 score over the Lady Bobcats. Later in the day, Tufts crushed the UNC Tar Heels 17-10. Both the Bobcats and the Tar Hells had been difficult opponents in previous years, but the increased skill and maturity of the Tufts team shined through this time around.

Heading the victories for Tufts were senior sabrists Kasara Williams and Mika Mutoh, both of whom ended the day with well-merited 10-2 records. Unfortunately, Tufts was unable to overcome Duke University and UPenn, both national top 20 teams, bringing their record on Sunday to 2-2.

This coming weekend represents the final conference meet for the Jumbos before post-season commences with the New England championships. The meet is critical for the team as members attempt to score enough points to qualify for the individual post-season regional competition.

Standing in their way will be a slew of other New England schools with the same objective, including Boston College and Harvard, traditionally difficult teams for Tufts. However, the team feels confident that this year they can overcome the odds, especially thanks to this past weekend's tune-up.

"The MIT Invitational was a chance for the first string to fence more difficult schools than the ones we usually face in the [New England] conference," Harper said.

The meet is set to take place this Saturday in the Cage at Cousens Gym, starting at 9a.m.