WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University fencing teams hosted the first of three home meets this season on Sunday afternoon, welcoming eight other teams for six rounds. The Brandeis men posted a 3-2 record, while the women went 2-3.
The Judges started the competition off with a pair of 14-13 wins over Johns Hopkins. The men saw a pair of 5-4 wins in sabre and foil, offsetting a 4-5 defeat in epee. For the women, a dominant 8-1 foil squad helped balance out losses of 4-5 in sabre and 2-7 in epee against the Blue Jays. Sophomore sabre Kyle Berney (Shreveport, La./Caddo Magnet) was the only 3-0 fencer for the men, while senior Caroline Mattos (Providence, R.I./Lasalle Acad.) and Zimeng "Boots" Xue (Beijing, China / Peking Univ. Affiliated) were 3-0 in foil on the women's side.
In the second round, the Judges again won by the same score on both the men's and women's side, defeating Drew University, 21-6. It was the men's foil squad and women's epee leading the way against the Rangers, as each posted 9-0 victories. There were seven 3-0 records for Brandeis against Drew. Foil fencers senior Toby Gray (Keene, N.H. / Keene), sophomore Elishua Litle(Haifa, Israel / Reali - Beit Beram) and rookie Charles Wells (Melville, N.Y. / Half Hollow Hills East) all performed the feat for the men, while senior Deborah Abiri (Old Westbury, N.Y. / North Shore) and junior Nina Sayles (Mamaroneck, N.Y. / Loomis-Chaffee) did it for women's sabre and senior Rosa Zhang (E. Setauket, N.Y. / Ward-Melville) and sophomore Liz Feller (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. / Hendrick Hudson) did so for the women's epee squad.
In the afternoon's third round, the Judges suffered their first losses of the season to Yale University, with the women edged 13-14 and the men falling 11-16. The Brandeis epee squads were up to the task against the Elis, with senior Gwendolyn Mowell(Wyckoff, N.J. / Indian Hills) going 3-0 and Feller and senior Sonya Glickman (Valhalla, N.Y. / Valhalla) each going 2-1 for a 7-2 victory. Abiri in the sabre and rookie Joanne Carminucci (Brewster, N.Y. / North Salem) in the foil also went 2-1. The men got a 5-4 epee win against Yale, with senior captainTom Hearne (Holmdel, N.J./Ranney School) and junior Albert Reiss (Short Hills, N.J. / Millburn) each going 2-1. Litle in the foil was the only Brandeis fencer to go 3-0 on the men's side.
In the next match, powerhouse St. John's proved to be too much, winning 23-4 on both sides of the ledger. Three of the four men's points came in the foil, where Litle posted another winning record, going 2-1, and sophomore Guillermo Narvaez (Metepec, Mexico / Technologico de Monterrey) adding a point. Sophomore Curtis Wilson (Denver, Colo. / Kent Denver) added win in sabre. The women got one win each from four fencers: Mattos, Xue and senior Emilia Dwyer (New York, N.Y. / Hunter H.S.) in the foil and Feller in the epee.
The Judges rounded out the day with matches against Cornell. The men defeated the Big Red club team, 16-11, while the women suffered a 6-21 loss. Sabre and foil each went 6-3 for the men, while the women got a 5-4 win in epee. Berney and Narvaez went 2-0 for the men, while Glickman and Mowell each accounted for a third of the women's points, going 2-1.
For the entire meet, the best record for the Judges was turned in by Elishua Litle, who went 10-3 in men's foil, posting a winning record in four of the five matches. Kyle Berney's nine sabre wins were second most. The women got a team-high seven wins from Feller in the epee and Abiri in the sabre. Glickman's 6-4 record in epee was the team's best winning percentage.
Brandeis is off until next semester. The women will open with a mid-week meet against Wellesley on Jan. 20, and both squads will fence in the second Northeast Fencing Conference meet on Jan. 23.