PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brandeis University fencing teams each posted 4-2 records at the second Northeast Fencing Conference meet of the season. The Judges finish the NFC season with an 8-2 record on the men's side, finishing second to 10-0 Boston College, while the women wind up at 9-3, in third place behind BC and Brown. The team's 17-5 overall record is also good for third place.

The Judges dropped their first two matches of the day on both sides to their rivals at the top of the standings. The men opened with a narrow 14-13 loss to Brown in which the sabre squad went 9-0, but foil fell, 6-3, and epee, 8-1. On the women's side, it was also a close defeat, 15-12, to the Bears, as foil went 8-1, but the other two squads lost 7-2 decisions.

Against eventual champions BC – under their first-year head coach, Brendan Doris-Pierce, a 2006 Brandeis graduate – both teams suffered 18-9 losses. For the men, sabre won 6-3, while foil lost by the same score, but the Eagles swept the epee bouts, 9-0. Similarly, on the women's side, it was an 8-1 win for foil and an 8-1 defeat for sabre, with BC's 9-0 epee win making the difference.

The Judges got back on the right track against Tufts in the third round. The epee squad led the women to victory with a 7-2 win, offsetting 5-4 defeats to the Jumbos in the other two weapons. The men rolled past Tufts' club side, 23-4, with a 9-0 foil sweep and 7-2 wins at sabre and epee.

In the final match of the day against a varsity opponent, the men dispatched Vassar, 19-8, with an 8-1 sabre win, and victories of 6-3 at foil and 5-4 at epee. The foil squad carried the women to a 15-12 win, with their 7-2 win and a 5-4 sabre victory countering a 6-3 loss at epee.

The final two matches of the day were against club sides, URI and Dartmouth. The men won both of those matches by 18-9 scores, while the women won both by 19-8 margins.

Men's sabre was the squad of the day, going undefeated at 6-0 with an overall record of 46-8. Senior Leon Rotenstein (Ashland, Mass./Ashland) went 11-1 on the day in four matches, while junior Shawn Pyatetsky (Fair Lawn, N.J. / Fair Lawn) was 9-1. On the women's side, it was the foil squad leading the way with a 5-1 mark, 42-12 overall. Senior Joanne Carminucci (Brewster, N.Y./North Salem) was undefeated on the day, going 12-0, while junior Jessica Gets (Morganville, N.J. / Marlborough) was 10-0.

The men's foil squad was 4-2, bouncing back from 6-3 losses in the first two matches to win four in a row with just five losses between them. Junior Trevor Filseth (Palo Alto, CA / Palo Alto) rallied to win his final eight matches and finish 8-2.

The men's epee, women's epee and women's saber squads all went 2-4 on the day. Rookie Jada Harrison (Jericho, N.Y. / Jericho) earned a win in all six matches for women's saber, finishing 12-6, with 3-0 performances against Dartmouth and Rhode Island. Junior Hannah Mui (New Hope, Pa. / New Hope-Solebury) helped out the squad with eight wins in her first saber action of the season, moving over from foil. Junior Dakota Levy (Merion Station, Pa./ Barrack) paced the women's epeeists with eight wins, while sophomore Garrett Tordo (Framingham, Mass. / Framingham) and Harrison Kaish (West Windsor, N.J. / West Windsor-Plainsboro North) each had five wins for men's epee squad, including Tordo's 3-0 record against Tufts.

The Judges return to action of February 3 at MIT for the Eric Sollee Invitational, which will include the annual UAA showdown with NYU.