Mandel, Mattos lead fencers at Western Invitational

Adam Mandel '15
Adam Mandel '15
Posted: Jan 17, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Brandeis University fencing teams traveled to the United States Air Force Academy for the Western Invitational on Saturday. The Judges combined for five wins in their 11 matches.  Both teams pulled out 14-13 wins over host Air Force and put together easy wins over CalTech (M, 24-3; W, 23-4). The women also pulled out a 14-13 win over Stanford. The men suffered a 19-8 loss to the Cardinal. Brandeis also suffered sweeps at the hands of Duke (M, 10-17; W, 9-18) and Cal.-San Diego (M, 13-14; W, 9-18). The women faced Northwestern and suffered a 22-5 defeat.

Against Air Force, the women got squad wins from sabre (5-4) and epee (7-2) to overcome a 2-7 loss in foil. Junior Sonya Glickman (Valhalla, N.Y./Valhalla) led the way for the epeeists with three wins, while classmate Deborah Abiri (Old Westbury, N.Y. / North Shore) and rookie Laura Broffman (East Norwich, N.Y./Oyster Bay) each won two bouts for sabre. Junior Caroline Mattos (Providence, R.I./Lasalle Acad.) also picked up two key foil wins. On the men's side against the Falcons, sabre (6-3) and foil (6-3) each won, offsetting a 2-7 defeat in epee. Senior sabre fencer Adam Mandel (White Plains, N.Y./Master's School) was the only triple winner in the match, while classmate Jess Ochs-Willard (Montclair, N.J./Montclair) won twice. Junior Tom Hearne (Holmdel, N.J./Ranney School) picked up two key wins in epee, while senior Noah Berman (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) and rookie Guillermo Narvaez (Metepec, Mexico / Technologico de Monterrey) each won twice in foil.

Against CalTech, women's sabre and epee each won 8-1, while foil won 7-2. On the men's side, sabre won 9-0, foil, 8-1 and epee, 7-2.

The women's win over Stanford was aided by a couple of injuries to Cardinal fencers. Stanford took an 8-1 decision in sabre, but epee won 7-2 and foil 6-3 to take the victory. Junior Gwendolyn Mowell (Wyckoff, N.J./Indian Hills) of the epee squad was the only Judge with three wins.

Other squad wins for the Judges included women's epee (5-4) and men's sabre (7-2) against UCSD and a 5-4 win for men's sabre over Duke.

The top overall performers for the Judges on the weekend were Adam Mandel, who posted an 11-2 record for men's sabre and Caroline Mattos, who was 12-2 for the women's foil squad.