After a rough outing at the Northeast Fencing Conference meet two weekends ago, the women's varsity fencing team entered Saturday's Brandeis Invitational and the ensuing home match against New York University (NYU) on Sunday hoping that additional practice time would enable it to turn in a better performance.
And even though the Jumbos won just one of their four contests, the team continued to show promise for the future.
"Our freshmen did well this weekend, and the extra practice time is definitely helping us improve," senior captain Amani Smathers said.
Sunday's dual match against NYU was the only such event the Jumbos will host this season, but they were unable to make use of the comforts of being home against a far more experienced squad.
The Violets enjoyed a stellar effort in the sabre event, defeating Tufts 7−2, and performed even better with the foil, shutting out the Jumbos 9−0. Freshmen épées Abby Hepworth and Kira Hoffman both posted 2−1 records for Tufts, as the Jumbos bested NYU 5−4 in that category, but the Violets dominance of the other bouts was enough to deal Tufts a 20−7 setback.
On Saturday, the Jumbos squared off against Haverford, Hunter and UPenn, sandwiching a pair of tough losses to UPenn and Haverford around a solid, 16−11 win over the Hawks.
Despite another strong effort by the épée squad, which was led by Smathers (5−3 on the day) and Hepworth (4−4), Tufts could not hold off the well−rounded Fords and Quakers, falling 17−10 and 24−3 in the two matches, respectively.
Overall, the Jumbos' épées finished the day with a winning mark of 2−1, while the foils were 1−2. The sabre squad lost all three of its bouts.
The performances of first−years Hepworth and Hoffman were the most encouraging part of the weekend for the team, though, as the freshmen have adapted to the collegiate level of fencing quickly.
Their recent efforts give the Jumbos reason to be excited and encouraged about their future prospects, in addition to breeding confidence in a rapidly improving épée squad for the remainder of this season.
"Abby Hepworth had a really good weekend for us, but we need to get better as a team, and it's tough because we're always really young and trying to rebuild," Smathers said.
Now 3−11 overall and 1−5 in NFC action, the Jumbos will look to continue to polish their skills when they host the second NFC conference meet of the season on Saturday. This weekend's matches will be Tufts' last tune−up for the New England College Championships on Feb. 20.
"Usually the teams we play in the second Northeast Fencing Conference meet aren't as good as the ones in the first, so we're definitely hoping to do better here at home," Smathers said.
