Tufts turned in a fourth-place performance on Saturday at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships, with strong contributions from all three weapons. The uniquely formatted tournament, hosted by the University of Vermont, consisted of 14 teams from around the Northeast. The opening round — which split the competitors into groups A, B and C — narrowed down the field to 12 fencers (the top six A fencers, top four B fencers and top two C fencers). These 12 then competed in round-robin-style pool play, from which the top eight advanced to a single-elimination bracket to determine the individual winner.
“The format is nice because you get to fence people who are on [your] level,” junior sabre fencer Bridget Marturano said.
With five wins in their last six regular season matches, the Jumbos kept the momentum rolling, as they placed one fencer in the quarterfinals for foil and saber and registered 467 total touches on the day.
The sabre squad led the way with 158 of those touches, as Marturano (eighth overall) and junior Nayab Ajaz (11th overall) both progressed to the pool play. Marturano, a two-time veteran of the NEIFC Championships, had a particularly successful day, losing only two bouts. Even though she was eliminated by the eventual champion, Dartmouth junior Kaleigh Mentzer, in the quarterfinals, the 15-7 scoreline represented the most touches scored by any competitor against Mentzer.
According to Marturano, her advancement to the final round was a substantial improvement from her fifth-place opening round exit last year.
“[Qualifying] for the pool round was my initial goal for the day because last year I missed [it] by three touches,” she said. “We started out fencing two of the hardest schools — Sacred Heart and Boston College — and I beat both of their A fencers, which was a great start and carried all the way through the rest of the day. I had a lot of intense bouts because I was fencing the toughest people from every school.”
The sabre team’s fifth overall finish was matched by that of the épée squad, which registered 155 total touches. Senior co-captain Anna Gooch (11th overall) also qualified for pool play but was unable to advance further after losing three of her five bouts.
Finally, the foil squad totaled 154 touches to finish sixth overall. Senior co-captain Juliet Hewes was the star of the day for the Jumbos, breezing through pool play with a 4-1 record and positioning herself as the third seed entering the final round. The Lexington, Mass. native was upset, though, falling 15-9 at the the blade of Brandeis' Joanne Carminucci in the first round. Despite being the sixth seed, Carminucci went on to win the tournament, making her the second overall champion of the day to knock out a Tufts fencer. Hewes, meanwhile, finished fifth overall, the highest of any Jumbo.
“We were all proud of [Juliet Hewes],” sophomore and fellow foilist Zoe Howard said. “Her last bout in the quarterfinals was really well fought.”
Howard, competing in her second NEIFC Championships, rebounded from a difficult start to finish ninth overall.
“I lost to a couple girls [whom] I shouldn’t have lost to, but really [it] picked up in the afternoon,” Howard said. “I won nice [victories] against Brandeis and Vassar, both schools that we have rivalries with.”
In pool play, she missed out on qualification to the quarterfinals by the slimmest of margins. After recording the same indicator — the difference between touches scored and touches received — as Vassar’s Sophie Blumenstock (-2), Howard dropped the tiebreaker: win-loss ratio.
The Jumbos’ fourth-place finish (behind Brandeis, MIT and Boston College) equals their mark from last year’s tournament. The team’s final event of the season is this weekend’s NCAA Regional Championships at Yale. The team will send six fencers to compete in New Haven, Conn.: the sabre squad’s Marturano and Ajaz, foilists Hewes and Howard, senior co-captain Chandler Coble and junior Grace Tellado from the épée squad.
Howard explained that as a first-time qualifier for Regionals, preparation is more elaborate than for the average meet.
“This coming week will be pretty intense,” Howard said. “It’s going to be lot of one-on-one time with [coach Carlos Bruno] and a lot of training, both technical and conditioning.”
Women's fencing earns fourth place at NEIFC Championships
