DURHAM, N.C. – The Brandeis Fencing teams headed to North Carolina for one of their toughest competitions of the season, the Duke Invitational. Against a field that included three top-10 opponents on both the men's and women's side, the Judges ended up with a winless weekend, going 0-5 on both sides.
The men competed on Saturday, and fell to #9 Duke, 8-19; North Carolina, 12-15; #3 Notre Dame, 2-25; #4 Penn State, 4-23; and Johns Hopkins, 9-18.
The Judges had two squad victories on the day. Against UNC, the foil squad rode a 3-0 record from sophomore Guillermo Narvaez (Metepec, Mexico / Technologico de Monterrey) and a 2-1 mark from classmate Elishua Litle (Haifa, Israel / Reali - Beit Beram) to a 6-3 win. Sabre took a 5-4 decision from JHU, with sophomore Kyle Berney (Shreveport, La./Caddo Magnet) going 2-1 with single wins from sophomore Curtis Wilson (Denver, Colo. / Kent Denver), senior Eric Shen (Mountainside, N.J. / Governor Livingston) and rookie Yaotian Zhang (Shenzhen, China / Shenzhen Experimental School).
Berney and Litle led Brandeis with six wins each. Litle was the only Brandeis fencer with a win in each of the five matches. Narvaez had five victories, while senior Tom Hearne (Holmdel, N.J./Ranney School) paced the epee squad with four wins.
On Sunday, the women were more competitive, with a few more squad wins. Overall, they fell to host Duke, 12-15; North Carolina, 10-17; #2 Notre Dame, 3-24; #9 Penn State, 9-18; and #10 Temple, 9-18.
The women's foil squad was the team's most successful of the weekend, posting 5-4 wins over both Duke and Penn State and dropping a narrow 4-5 match to Temple. Women's sabre also posted a 5-4 win over the Blue Devils, but the hosts won epee, 7-2, to pull out the match.
The top two fencers for Brandeis over the weekend came from that women's foil squad. RookieJoanne Carminucci (Brewster, NY / North Salem) led the team with a 10-5 record, including an impressive 3-0 mark against Penn State, as well as against Duke. She also went 2-1 against North Carolina and matched Litle with wins over all five teams she faced. Senior Caroline Mattos(Providence, R.I./LaSalle Acad.) went 6-6, posting 2-1 records against Penn State, Temple and Duke.
Two other Brandeis fencers posted five wins for the women, with junior sabre fencer Ashley Jean(Norwood, Mass./Fontbonne Acad.) posting a winning record against Duke and seniorGwendolyn Mowell (Wyckoff, N.J. / Indian Hills) going 2-1 in epee against Penn State.
The Judges return to action on Wednesday evening for the annual Beanpot Tournament against Boston College, MIT and Harvard, this year hosted by Harvard.