The womens fencing team participated in two meets last weekend, going 5-1 in the Northeast Conference on Saturday, and winning the Wellesley College Fencing Invitational on Sunday.
Coming off of a challenging but successful Northeast Conference on Saturday, Tufts notched easy wins against Boston University, 20-7, Mount Holyoke, 23-4, and Wellesley, 19-8, and came away as the undisputed winner of the Wellesley Invitational Tournament on Sunday. Wellesley took second place followed by Mount Holyoke and Boston University. Although Tufts had a strong weekend, initially the team was just looking to perform alongside stiff competition, senior co-captain Shelby Bean said.
The team is now tied with Sacred Heart University for fourth place in the NFC, behind Brown University, Brandeis University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology .
In the first round on Sunday, Tufts was matched up against Boston University, with each weapon class contributing to the victory. Epee and sabre both won 7-2, and foil won 6-3. Newly appointed epee captain, sophomore Julia Malleck, freshman Lindsay Squires and the foil captain, senior Mailin Li each won all three of their matches.
Tufts routed Mount Holyoke, in the most one-sided match of the weekend, with foil dropping just three matches, epee one, and sabre none. Ten Tufts players went undefeated against Mount Holyoke.
Closing out the tournament against host Wellesley, a tight win by the epee squad 6-3, and a nail-biting loss by the foil squad kept the Jumbos up by two points before the sabre squads 9-0 destruction of the Blue to win 19-8 overall, tying the ribbon on a successful weekend for Tufts womens fencing.
Squires remained undefeated throughout the tournament, winning all seven of her matches. Malleck dropped just one of her seven matches.
Against stiffer competition at the Northeast Conference on Saturday, Tufts recorded wins over Brown University, 14-13, Dartmouth College, 16-11, Smith College, 17-10, Vassar College, 16-11, and MIT, 18-9. Their only loss was to the second-seeded Brandeis by a score of 21-6.
Against Brown, Tufts recorded 7-2 and 6-3 wins in epee and sabre. In the Jumbos closest matchup of the day the sabre team barely edged out the Bears 14-13. Malleck won a pair of matches in epee, while Bean and freshman Anna Gooch both won two matches in epee and sabre, respectively.
It felt great for all of us knowing that we could work together to beat Brown, breaking their undefeated record this season, senior co-captain and sabre captain Julia Hisey told the Daily in an email.
Tufts sabre class continued their strong performance with a perfect record against Dartmouth, 9-0, lifting the team to a 16-11 victory overall, despite Dartmouth winning both the epee and foil weapon classes. Sophomore Alexandra Boden led the way for the Jumbo victory, winning all three of her matches in sabre.
Against Smith College, Hisey and Malleck led Tufts to a 17-10 victory, both going a perfect three-for-three in their matches. The Tufts sabre class continued their dominance, winning all nine games. Epee also put forward a strong effort, winning 7-2, and helping the Jumbos to their third straight win of the day.
Although the sabre and epee weapon classes had carried the weight of the team for the first three wins, the foil squad recorded their only win of the day against Vassar college, playing a crucial role in the teams 16-11 victory.
The match against Vassar saw notable wins from freshmen Juliet Hewes and Squires. Hewes provided a much-needed spark for the foil squad by winning all three of her matchups. Squires was also undefeated in sabre.
Tufts biggest win of the day was against three-seed MIT, with 7-2 wins in both epee and sabre. But Malleck and Hisey were again the spark behind the win, as they both had undefeated matches.
The Jumbos only loss of the event came at the hands of a strong Brandeis team, but Gooch and Squires continued their superb performances, winning five of their six matchups.
The Jumbos will resume their winter season this weekend at the Northwestern Meet.
The teams morale was definitely high [after this weekend], Hisey told the Daily in an email. We are looking to keep our momentum going into [this Northwestern Meet] and try to look at it as an opportunity for some good fencing.
