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• Saturday's men's epee final at the MFCs – between Notre Dame senior Karol Kostka and Ohio State freshman Igor Tolkachev (St. Petersburg, Russia) – brought back memories of another recent ND-OSU men's epee rivalry, involving Tolkachev's brother Denis and ND's Michal Sobieraj ... Sobieraj (who fenced for ND from 2002-05) and Kostka both are natives of Krakow, Poland, with each attending the same high school (First Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Bartlomieja Nowodworskiego) and training at the same club (AZS-AWF Krakow) ... the "reincarnation" of the Sobieraj-Tolkachev rivalry produced a thrilling MFC title bout, with Kostka capturing the narrow 15-14 win.

• Kostka entered the day as the #3 seed and moved up to #1 for the 80-fencer, direct-elimination phase, after going 7-0 (+28) in his pool bouts ... Tolkachev was the #4 initial seed, but he dropped to #14 for the DE (he was 6-1/+17 in the pools) – with his loss coming to #77 seed Rich Molina of ND (3-5).

• Tolkachev recovered from the lower DE seeding by defeating Cleveland State's John Marshall in a round-of-16 defensive battle (9-8), followed by a 15-8 quarterfinal win over OSU teammate Eric Gurnowski and a 15-12 semifinal against ND's Jacob Osborne ... Kostka beat #8 Chris Pinkowski (ND) in a 15-10 quarterfinal before knocking off two-time NCAA champion Slava Zingerman (Wayne State) in a 15-12 semifinal (Zingerman was the pre-tournament top seed and #4 for the DE; 7-0/+23 in pools).

Northwestern veteran Samantha Nemecek claimed today;s 2009 Midwestern Fencing Conference women's epee title, after entering the tournament as the #2 seed, going 6-0 in her five-touch pool bouts (+26) and progressing through the round-round (as the #4 seed) – with her final three wins coming versus  co-#4 Emile Prot of Notre Dame (15-11), #1 seed Lindsay Knauer of Ohio State (15-12), and #11 Hayley Reese (ND) in a 15-12 final.

More details coming later tonight.

Three more individual champions are in from the MFCs (more details/breakdown to follow):

Men's Foil: Andras Horanyi (OSU) ... #1 initial seed ... went 6-0 (+25) in pools to earn #3 seed in DE ... ultimately beat #6 Reggie Bentley (ND) in 15-7 quarterfinal, #2 Steve Kubik (ND) in 15-8 semifnal, and #5 Enzo Castellani (ND) in 15-5 final.

Men's Epee: Karol Kostka (ND) ... #3 initial seed, went 7-0 (+28) in pools to earn #1 seed in DE ... ultimately beat #8 Chris Pinkowski (ND) in 15-10 quarterfinal, #4 Slava Zingerman (Wayne State) in 15-12 semifinal, and #14 Igor Tolkachev (OSU) in 15-14 final.

Men's Sabre: John Friend (Ohio State) ... #9 initial seed ... went 5-0 (+20) in pools to earn #8 seed in DE ... ultimately beat #1 Jakub Gibczynski (Wayne State) in 15-13 quarterfinal, #4 Dexter Wilde (OSU) in 15-13 semifinal, and #6 Avery Zuck in 15-8 final.

Combined Team Standings (final): 1. Penn 145; 2. Columbia 134; 3. Harvard 119; 4. Princeton 113; 5. Yale 98; 6. Brandeis 81; 7. MIT 80; 8. Boston College 75; 9. NYU 63; 10. Vassar 49; 11. Brown 46; 12. Cornell (women only) 45.

Top-5 Men's Teams: 1. Penn 73; 2. Harvard 59; 3. Columbia 56; 4. Princeton 51; 5. Yale 44.

Top-5 Women's Teams: 1. Columbia 78; 2. Penn 62; 3. Princeton 62; 4. Harvard 60; 5. Yale 50.

Team Weapon Champions:

Men's Foil: Yale 24 (runner-up Penn, 23)

Women's Foil: Columbia 25 (runner-up Penn, 24)

Men's Epee: Penn and Harvard, 25

Women's Epee: Columbia 28 (runner-up Penn, 23)

Men's Sabre: Penn 25 (runner-up Columbia, 20)

Women's Sabre: Columbia and Penn, 25

Men's Foil Top-4 (final): Simmons (PENN), Farrag (COL), Howard (PR), Kapur (PENN)

Men's Epee Top-4 (final): Ungar (HARV), Elfassy (PR), Beslund (NYU), Pearce (YALE)

Men's Sabre Top-4 (final): Spear (COL), Bielen (Penn), Souders (BC), Abend (PR)

Women's Foil Top-4 (final): Ross (COL), Oliva (PR), Hirschfeld (CORN), Pensler (HARV)

(stay tuned throughout the day, as we recap all six MFC weapons and hope to catch up with the action at the IFAs)

* The two finalists – Notre Dame's Sarah Borrmann (3) and Ohio State's Margarita Tschomakova (4) – improved slightly on their seeds entering the day (neither was seeded top-5 after the pools/entering the DE, with Borrmann 8th/5-1 in pools and Tschomakova 6th/5-0 in pools). Borrmann's loss in the pools came against Northwestern's Courtney Park (#37 seed; 3-5).

* Borrmann's first big test in the direct-elimination came in the round-of-16 against Northwestern's Annelise Eeman (#16 initial seed/#11 after pools), with Borrmann eeking out the 15-13 win. She then won another close bout (15-12) in the quarterfinals, knocking out Ohio State freshman Emily Cheng (the recent Junior Olympic champion who entered the MFCs as #5 seed and was top-seeded for the DE). Borrmann's semifinal bout produced a 15-11 win over ND teammate Ashley Serrette, followed by a surprisingly easy 15-8 final against Tschomakova.

Key bout details to follow ... 

2009 MFC Women's Sabre Final Standings (field of 54)

1. Sarah Borrmann  (Notre Dame)
2. Margarita Tschomakova  (Ohio State)
3. Falencia Miller  (OSU)  
3. Ashley Serrette  (ND)  
5. Emily Cheng  (OSU)   
6. Adrienne Shon  (Northwestern)  
7. Whitney White  (NW) 
8. Beatriz Almeida  (ND)  

9.  Eileen Hassett  (ND)  
10. Kiara Moore  (OSU)
11. Annelise Eeman  (NW) 
12. Larissa Kenney  (OSU) 
13. Ashley McLemore  (Detroit)
14. Allison Keller  (NW)  
15. Jillian Mahen  (NW)  
16. Anna Kotov  (Wayne State) 

17. Katie Friedrichs  (Michigan State) 
18. Courtney Park  (NW)  
19. Mary Koser  (Indiana)
20. Samantha LaFrance  (DET)  
21. Brittany Romatowski  (WSU) 
22. Talia Hurwich  (Chicago)
23. Amy Ross  (Michigan)
24. Brynne O'Neal  (CHI)

25. Sarah Beckman  (Wisconsin)  
26. Alyssa Wootton  (OSU)  
27. Rebecca Swanney  (IU)
28. Bridgette Tinsley  (MICH)
29. Alexandra Carrico  (MSU) 
30. Kara Zdenek  (MSU) 
31. Meg Holt  (MSU)
32. Samantha Kukendahl  (IU)

Women’s Foil
1. Lindsay Knauer (Ohio State)
2. Devynn Patterson  (Northwestern)
2. Oksana Dmytruk  (Ohio State)
4. Emilie Prot  (Notre Dame)
4. Sam Nemecek  (Northwestern)

Women’s Epee
1. Christa French  (Northwestern)
2. Kelley Hurley  (Notre Dame)
2. Joanna Nuklinska  (Northwestern)
4. Ewa Nelip  (Notre Dame)
5. Courtney Hurley  (Notre Dame)

MFC Men's Sabre Top-25 Seeds (field of 71)

1. Mike Momtselidze  (Ohio State)
2. Avery Zuck  (Notre Dame)  
3. Max Stearns  (Ohio State)
4. Boll Thanhouser  (Notre Dame)
5. Barron Nydam  (Notre Dame)  
6. Jakub Gubczynski  (Wayne State)  
7. Dexter Wilde  (Ohio State)
8. Robert Douville  (Ohio State)

9. John Friend  (Ohio State)
10. Keith Feldman (Notre Dame) 
11. Tom Horton  (Notre Dame)
12. Tony Schlehuber  (Notre Dame)
13. Trent Lundquist  (Ohio State)
14. Marcel Funkel  (Notre Dame)   
15. Alex Chee  (Lawrence)
16. Alex Buell  (Notre Dame)  

17. Jason Heiss  (Cleveland State)
18. Zach Warburg  (Northwestern)
19. Tom Fox  (Northwestern)    
20. Brian Jao  (Case Western)
21. Stephan Patrias  (Chicago)
22. Kryzstof Abbas  (Wayne State)   
23. Shane Blackman  (Chicago)
24. Michael Danelia  (Detroit)
25. Michael Opalewski  (Wayne State)  

Men’s Foil
1. Zach Schirtz   (Notre Dame)
2. Steve Kubik   (Notre Dame)
3. Andras Horanyi   (Ohio State)
3. Philip Chan   (Illinois)
5. Enzo Castellani   (Notre Dame)

As a point of clarification, today's tournaments (the IFAs and MFCs) essentially are postseason exhibition events, in relation to the qualification process for the NCAA Championships. Final NCAA qualification data was submitted earlier this week, with only bouts versus varsity-level fencers (in dual-meet formats) counting in the qualification formula. Earlier "open" individual tournaments and last week's New England Championships (which is contested in a pools/DE format) also do not factor into NCAA qualification – but results from the recent Ivy League Championships are used to determine NCAA entrants (due to the fact that the Ivy League uses a dual-meet format).

Despite the absence of "countable bouts," the IFAs and MFCs still can prove to be valuable to coaches, who may have to make some tough choices in terms of choosing (when applicable) which fencers from their respective teams to send to the NCAA Regionals and/or Finals (championship) – more on this process will be upcoming in the CF360 blog. 

The annual IFA Championships fencing was set to start at 8:30 eastern, on the campus of Brandeis University (in Waltham, Mass.). This marks the 112th Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championship, an event that dates back to the late 19th century (1894, with a four-year hiatus during World War II.).

The event includes various competition for team and individual weapon titles, plus a men's three-weapon champion, a women's three-weapon champion and a combined men's/women's champion. the men's foil teams will be battling for the historic Little Iron Man Trophy (see picture below), which is considered to be the oldest intercollegiate trophy still contested (dating back to the 1890s).

The rosters for the 12 teams at this year's IFA event include fencers who have combined to win seven IFA individual titles:
• Harvard junior women's foilist Misha Goldfeder (2007 and 2008)
• Harvard fifth-year senior women's foilist Emily Cross (2006)
• Princeton senior women's epeeist Jasjit Bhinder (2008)
• Columbia junior men's foilist Kurt Getz (2007)
• Princeton sophomore men's epeeist Graham Wicas (2008)
• Columbia junior men's sabreist Jeff Spear (2008)

MFC Women's Sabre Top-25 Seeds (field of 61)

1. Falencia Miller  (Ohio State)
2. Eileen Hassett  (Notre Dame)
3. Sarah Borrmann  (Notre Dame)
4. Margarita Tschmoakov  (Ohio State)
5. Emily Cheng  (Ohio State)
6. Whitney White  (Northwestern)
7. Beatriz Almeida  (Notre Dame)
8. Ashley Serrette  (Notre Dame)

9. Jillian Mahan  (Northwestern)
10. Adrienne Shon  (Northwestern)
11. Allison Keller  (Northwestern)
12. Ashee McLemore  (Detroit)
13. Kiara Moore  (Ohio State)
14. Christina Zoccoli  (Notre Dame)
15. Anna Kotov  (Wayne State)
16. Annelise Eeman  (Northwestern)

17. Anna Kotov  (Indiana)
18. Annelise Eeman  (Wayne State)
19. Avi Simon  (Xavier)
20. Allison Divan  (Detroit)
21. Talie Hurwich  (Chicago)
22. Colleen Dawes  (Notre Dame)
23. Rebecca Swanney  (Indiana)
24. Samantha LaFrance  (Detroit)
25. Meg Holt  (Michigan State)

The Midwest Fencing Conference individual competition is set to begin, with three weapon pools (mens epee and foil, and women's sabre) hitting the strips in the early-morning bouts. The other three weapons then have an approximate start time of 10:15 eastern. The direct-elimination phase will follow in the afternoon, with the first three weapons slated to enter DE shortly after noon (the final three weapons then will start their fenceoff phase around 2:30).

Sunday's team competition – contested between individual weapon groups, in bracket format (9-bout matches) – will begin for the men's weapons at 8:00, with the women following at approximately 12:30.

Seeding information for Saturday's early weapons coming up next.

2009 MIDWEST FENCING CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

Saturday, February 28 -– Individual Championships
8:00 a.m. – pools for men's epee, men's foil and women's sabre 
10:15 a.m. – pools for men's sabre, women's epee and women's foil 
12:30 p.m. – direct-elimination for men's epee, men's foil and women's sabre 
2:30 p.m. – direct-elimination for men's foil, women's epee and women's sabre

CF360 will begin ramping up coverage (on the BLOG and throughout the site) today, throughout the weekend and all the way through the NCAAs. Note that the Composite Schedule (linked via the tab above) has been updated to include the dates and other basic info. for all remaining postseason action in varsity college fencing. An upcoming blog posting will provide a CF360 to-do list of upcoming offerings, updates, etc.

We are breaking down results from the New England Championships and will be posting info. on the blog shortly (also upcoming: more from the Ivy League, most notably recap tributes to the championships teams: the Harvard women and Penn men).

(We regret a delay in posting Ivy League recap info. today, due to some unforeseen technical and schedule issues ... but the blog is quickly catching up, today and tomorrow).

A talented group of freshman women's fencers cemented their place in Ivy League history on Sunday at Brown University, as first-year fencers combined to capture 11 of the 18 spots on the all-Ivy League women's fencing lists (six of the nine first teamers also are freshmen). Those 11 rookies were evenly-spaced among the weapons, with four foilists, three epeeists and four sabreists. Columbia, Penn and Princeton each boast three of these elite newcomers on their rosters, while Harvard has two.

Those two Harvard freshmen – epee Olympian Noam Mills (17-1; Kfar Saba, Israel) and sabreist Caroline Vloka (16-2; Upper Saddle River, N.J.) – finished atop their respective weapon groups (based on win pct.), while Princeton newcomer Lucile Jarry (12-2; Larchmont, N.Y.) finished second in foil, behind only Olympian Emily Cross  (16-2; Harvard, Sr.; New York, NY).

The University of Pennsylvania men's fencing team and the Harvard women have claimed Ivy League team titles,  by virtue of results today in action at Brown University. Two of today's three rounds have been fully completed, with the Harvard women posting wins over Brown (20-7) and Penn (15-12) while the Penn men defeated Harvard, 16-11. We also received word that Penn has completed an undefeated season, meaning that the final round (a win over Yale) also must be done for the Quakers men.

CollegeFencing360 already has received bout sheets from the first two rounds and will be passing along details from all 15 of today's matches, plus final thoughts on the Ivy League Championships (including individual champions and all-Ivy League teams).

Penn State will not be holding its quad meet today (vs. St. John's, Duke and Temple), due to travel issues with some of the other teams. That's too bad, because it would have been great to see some matchups between elite fencers – particularly in women's sabre, with Duke's Becca Ward, PSU's Caity Thompson and Monika Askamit, and Dagmara Wozniak of St. John's (all four are national-team caliber sabreists). We're fairly certain that Ward has lost only twice this season in college team events, with those losses coming to Thompson and Penn's Danielle Kamis (both at the Princeton Duals).

It doesn't seem like we have been able to measure Penn State's team much this season (in dual-meet scenarios), as the PSU men have fenced only 15 matches (12-3) while the women will head into the postseason following a 13-1 regular season. The Nittany Lions also do not compete in a "conference tournament" event (such as the IFAs or MFCs), so they have only one event remaining – the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional (March 7) – before serving as the host team for the NCAA Championships (March 19-22).

See the rankings tab for the updated USFCA national poll (with notes). 

The U.S. Fencing Coaches Association national poll will be updated on Thursday morning (Feb. 19). Simply check CollegeFencing360.com and click on the rankings tab.

The unbeaten Notre Dame men likely will claim sole possession of the #1 spot (current co-#1 Penn State has lost twice, including a match against fellow #1 ND). Also look for the #6 Penn and #9 St. John's men to possibly move up in the poll, while the #4 Columbia men and #7 Harvard may drop a couple spots.

The Penn State women (13-1) may remain #1, despite losing the head-to-head battle with #2 Notre Dame (the Irish women lost twice in their regular season, versus #3 Ohio State and #4 Columbia). After a quick glance over the initial women's poll, it appears that there may not be as much movement in the women's poll as in the men's. 

Here's a look at some of the top individual performers during part-I of the Ivy League Round-Robin Championships, held on Feb. 8 (impressively, more than half of the 15 fencers listed below are freshmen, plus three juniors and four seniors):

Caroline Vloka  (12-0 ... Women's Sabre; Harvard; Fr.; Upper Saddle River, NJ)  ...  key wins: 5-3 vs. Cornell's Alex Heiss (three-time NCAA participant), swept Columbia's freshman duo Sammy Roberts (5-2) and Stephanie Aiuto (5-1).

Lucile Jarry  (9-0 ... Women's Foil; Princeton; Fr.; Larchmont, NY)  ...  key wins: swept Harvard trio that includes Olympian Emily Cross (5-3) and '08 NCAA entrants Anna Podolsky (5-3) and Arielle Pensler (5-0), also beat Penn All-American Ilana Sinkin (5-4), Penn newcomer Laura Paragano (5-3) and Cornell '08 NCAA qualifier Jessica Tranquada (5-1).

Michael Pearce  (9-0 ... Men's Epee; Yale; Sr.; San Francisco, CA)  ...  key wins: swept Columbia All-Americans Max Czapanskiy (5-2) and Dwight Smith (3-0), along with their teammate Lorenzo Castertano (5-3); also beat Brown '08 NCAA entrant Adam Yarnell (4-3).

The CF360 blog will be revisiting last weekend's Ivy League round-robin meet, held at Columbia. We will provide several blog posts as part of the Ivy League recap (in addition to previewing "part-2" of the Ivy League round-robin, to he held Feb. 22 at Brown).

Ivy League team champions (men and women) are awarded based on won-loss record in the round-robin matches. Each women's team has six matches and each men's team competes in five, as Cornell sponsors only women's fencing on a varsity level.

The standings are included below, as are two other lists (compiled by CF360) that show how many weapon groups (vs. each opponent) that the teams have won, in addition to a ranking of total bouts won (sorted by win pct., as some teams fenced more matches that others during part-1). 

The upcoming round-robin day at Brown will include three more rounds, with nine women's matches and six men's spread over those three rounds.

Teams are able to share the title (as was the case with the Harvard and Columbia men in 2006), with head-to-head results not used as a tie-breaker. The #5-ranked Harvard women are in the driver's seat (4-0), with their big win coming over #4 Columbia (15-12). The Crimson women likely are assured of at least a tie for the title, as one of their two remaining matches is versus last-place Brown (plus #9 Penn).

A check of Friday's final results from the Junior Olympics has revealed several other noteworthy college fencers who are competing in this event. CF360 earlier was aware of most Ivy League fencers attending the JOs, but we know know that Columbia'a top women's foilists Nicole Ross and Abigail Caparros-Janto also were among the 136 who participated in the 2009 JO under-20 meet. Ross (#5 in the USFA "rolling" rankings) placed sixth in the JOs, while Caparros-Janto was 15th.

Other top-20 results for collegiate fencers include (but are not necessarily limited to): Notree Dame's Hayley Reese (10th; ranked #7), Princeton's Lucille Jarry (18th; ranked #16) and Northwestern's Camille Provencale-Dayle (20th; ranked #21). The top-4 finishers in women's foil were Margaret Lu, Lee Kiefer, Madison Zeiss, Ambika Singh, Mikayla Varadi, Ross, Luona Wang and Eva Levin.

Ohio State freshman Eric Gornowski won the 203-fencer men's epee competition, while Air Force's Daniel Trapani placed fifth and Vassar's Nicholas Johnson was 18th. Gurnowski defeated Samuel Zucker in the semifinals and Corwin Duncan in the final (Duncan faced Ed Kelley in the semi's). Other final-8 men's epeeists included James Kaull, Jeffrey Miller and Michael Rossi.

We have received word of a few more confirmed entries in the Junior Olympics:

• Vassar freshman men's epeeists Brian Rouse and Nicholas Johnson

• Cornell freshman women's foilist Rebecca Hirschfeld

• NYU women's foilist Rebeccsa Baird-Remba and women's sabreist Lisa Verzino

• Notre Dame freshman women's sabreist Bia Almeida

We also have learned that MIT and Brown do not have any competitors at the JOs (we are making the same assumption for Columbia and Yale, unless hearing otherwise).

More later (and through Monday) ... please continue to send CF360 your JOs info.

CollegeFencing360 is hoping to compile some confirmed entries (among current collegiate fencers) who will be competing at the upcoming Junior Olympics, Feb. 13-16 in Albuquerque (of course, we then would love to pass along some result highlights as well). Three junior-level (under-20) weapons will be competing on Friday (Feb. 13): men's epee, women's foil and women's sabre. The u-20 men's sabreists and women's epeeists then will hit the strips on Saturday (Feb. 14), followed by a day off for the u-20s and finally the men's foil bouts on Monday, Feb. 16.

Feel free to email CF360 with names of current varsity-level college fencers who (to your knowledge) are confirmed for the Junior Olympics. We will try to compile an "unofficial" confirmed list – along with any other information we can obtain from college coaches and schools websites (those two sources, as of this morning, have yielded no names – CF360 will try to pass any info. as it becomes available, both before or after the events).

Anyone attending the event who would like to fax CF360 entry list(s), that would be helpful as well (we're assuming that the USFA has plenty on its plate right now). Please email us and we will arrange to receive your fax.

The NYU men's fencing team has registered one of the more noteworthy upsets of the 2009 college fencing season, edging #4 Columbia in a 15-12 match at the NYU Duals. The Lions won the foil (6-3) and epee (5-4) competition, but  the Violets stunningly won all but one of the sabre bouts (8-1). The #4 Columbia women wrapped up a dominant way by defeating NYU, 23-4. The Lions women dropped only 12 total bouts spanning Wednesday three wins (vs. Sacred Heart, Vassar and NYU).

A wrapup of this event is coming soon, on the CF360 blog.

NYU QUAD MEET (final/rounds 1-3;  Wed., Feb. 11)

Men's Bouts
NYU 15 (F3, E4, S8), #4 Columbia 12 (F6, E5, S1)
#4 Columbia 16 (F7, E5, S4), Vassar 11 (F2, E4, S5)
#4 Columbia 20 (F6, E9, S5), Sacred Heart 7 (F3, E0, S4)

NYU 16 (F5, E5, S6), Sacred Heart 11 (F4, E4, S3)
NYU 17 (F6, E6, S5), Vassar 10 (F3, E3, S4)

Women's Bouts 
#4 Columbia 23 (F7, E8, S8), NYU 4 (F2, E1, S1)
#4 Columbia 26 (F8, E9, S9), Vassar 1(F1, E0, S0)
#4 Columbia 20 (F7, E5, S8), Sacred Heart 7 (F2, E4, S1)

As expected, the schedule for tonight's four-team meet at NYU will include three rounds (5:00, 6:00 and 7:00) – but NFC rivals Sacred Heart and Vassar will not face each other (thus there will be only one match in round-3). CF360 has contacted the great folks at NYU, who plan to fax along scoresheets after the matches. We will break down the results to see if certain fencers continue their season-long domination and if others manage to pull off some upsets.

NYU Quad Meet (Wed., Feb. 11)
Round-1 – Columbia vs. Sacred Heart ... NYU vs. Vassar
Round-2 – Columbia vs. Vassar ... NYU vs. Sacred Heart
Round-3 – Columbia vs. NYU

Harvard women's epeeist Noam Mills and Columbia men's saberist Jeff Spear have been named the national collegiate fencers of the week for Feb. 2-8, in the third installment of the awards (as announced by CollegeFencing360.com).

It was an impressive week for freshmen from several teams, as three of the individuals who have received CF360 weekly honorable mention also are newcomers: Duke men's foilist Dan Cohen, Princeton women's foilist Lucille Jarry and Harvard women's sabreist Caroline Vloka (Pennsylvania junior men's sabreist Jonathan Berkowsky rounds out the honorable mention selection).

For the most recent fencer-of-the-week release, click on the awards tab above or the link included below:

CF360 Fencers of the Week

Note that additional details and action photos of these six fencers will be added to that fencer-of-the-week release. We know that this site is growing quickly in popularity – with nearly 1,100 unique visitors in a span of two weeks. With a relatively light week – although plans are in the works to track college fencers at the upcoming Junior Olympics – we hope to catch up on recent event summaries, in addition to introducing some new offerings to the site. There also will be a blog report on today's meet at NYU (featuring Columbia, Sacred Heart and Vassar, plus the host Violets).

The CollegeFencing360 log will passing on more recap notes and details from recent tournaments – including the Ivy League Round-Robin, ND Duals, and NFCs, plus the Stevens Tech and NJIT meets (along with some follow-up thoughts on the Northwestern Duals and the mens bouts from the M.I.T. Invitational). The past two weekends have featured two huge tournaments (at Northwestern and Notre Dame), but we expect to provide bout highlights from those events later today.

We also hope to report on the midweek matches coming up and will try to track what college fencers are competing (and how they do) at this weekend's annual Junior Olympics, to be held in Albuquerque.

We expect to be able to announce fencers of the week later tonight, after checking out various scoresheets to confirm how certain fencers did against their top opponents.

Two long days of matches at the Notre Dame Duals (covering 123 total matches) yielded very few upsets, while both Irish teams went undefeated over the two-day event. The co-#1 Notre Dame men were 6-0 on Sunday (including a 15-12 win over #7 Stanford) and have ended the regular season undefeated (33-0) for the 21st time in the ND men's fencing program's history and first time since 2003 (24-0). The Irish defeated nine top-10 opponents – co-#1 Penn State, #3 Ohio State (2), #4 Ohio State (2), #7 Stanford, #9 St. John's (2) and #10 North Carolina – during their undefeated regular season.

It marks the most wins ever by a Notre Dame fencing team (men's or women's) during an undefeted season (the 1995 ND women were 32-0, while the '76 and '86 Irish men's teams both were 26-0). No previous Notre Dame fencing teams had even totaled more than 32 wins in a season, as the 1996 (29-3) and 2006 (29-1) ND men's teams each had 29 wins while the '95 Irish women's squad posted its 32-win total.

The #2 Notre Dame women's team (4-0 on Sunday) ended the regular season with a 32-2 record (both losses came at the NYU Duals, vs. #3 Ohio State and #4 Columbia), tying the '95 squad for most wins ever by an ND women's team.

It didn't take long for the Ivy League Round-Robin tournament to produce an upset (based on the national top-10 polls), as the #6 Pennsylvania men doubled up #4 Columbia in an 18-9 win. The Quakers swept all three weapons, winning seven foil bouts, six in sabre and five in epee.

Eight of the nine Columbia fencers posted winning records, led by a 3-0 mark from foilist Zane Grodman. Columbia ace sabreist Jeff Spear (the '08 NCAAA and Ivy League champion) and two-time epee All-American Dwight Smith also went 3-0, but the rest of the Lions fencers combined for only a 3-18 record.

The Penn men – who had the benefit of drawing a bye in Sunday's round-1 – have yet to lose this season (13-0), highlighted by Sunday's victory and an earlier 17-10 win over co-#1 Penn State.

The Columbia men's team results in 2009 have yet to feature a victory over a top-10 opponent, with a combined record of 3-7 in the regular season and Ivy League postseason. The Lions have suffered two losses each to co-#1 Columbia, #3 Ohio State and #9 St. John's, plus the loss to Penn (Columbia's wins have come vs. Wayne State, Stevens Tech and Yale).

The Harvard-Princeton matchup projected to be one of the most competitive in the Ivy League Championships and that certainly proved to be the case in the women's match, with the #5 Crimson edging the #7 Tigers by a single point (14-13). In the men's competition, #5 Princeton turned in a 17-10 win over #7 Harvard.

Sunday's results mirrored the meetings from earlier in the season, when the Harvard women beat Princeton (17-10) and the Tigers men edged the Crimson (14-13).

The Princeton women actually won two of the weapons against Harvard (6-3 in sabre, 5-4 in foil), but the Crimson's epee unit went 7-2 to deliver the team victory. Three talented newcomers went 3-0 in the tense battle: Harvard sabreist Caroline Vloka (the reigning Penn State Open champion) and epeeist Noam Mills, along with  Princeton foilist Lucille Jarry. Eight other fencers went 2-1, in the highly competitive showdown.

Olympian Emily Cross (the '05 NCAA champion) was the only member of Harvard's deep women's foili unit that posted a winning record (2-1), with the fifth-year senior losing to the upstart Jarry. Harvard's decisive epee victory included the three wins from Mills, plus 2-1 records by All-American Maria Larrson and Lisa Vastola. Both of Princeton's epee wins came from newcomer Susannah Scanlan, with All-American Jasjit Bhinder losing both of her bouts versus Princeton.

Sunday's first four rounds are complete at the Notre Dame Duals, with the following noteworthy results:

• The co-#1 ND men (3-0) remained unbeaten (30-0), with a key 15-12 win over #7 Stanford (both teams won weapons 5-4, ND in sabre and Stanford in epee, but the Irish claimed the key 6-3 foil edge) ... the #2 ND women (3-0) improved to 31-2 for the season, with the top win on Sunday morning coming against UC San Diego (21-6).

• The #6 Northwestern women opened the day with four wins, most notably 20-7 over UCSD.

• Florida's non-varsity/club women's team picked up its fifth win of the weekend over a varsity opponent, with Sunday's 17-12 victory over Air Force (the Gators won seven epee bouts, plus six in sabre and four in foil).

More to come from this event, including an overall wrapup of the two days.

NOTRE DAME DUALS (rounds 1-4; Sunday, Feb. 8)

#6 Northwestern 20 (F6, E7, S7), UC San Diego 7 (F3, E2, S2)
#6 Northwestern 23 (F8, E9, S6), Cal Tech 4 (F1, E0, S3)
#6 Northwestern 25 (F9, E7, S0), Cleveland State 2 (F0, E2, S0)
#6 Northwestern 21 (F9, E5, S7), Florida 6 (F0, E4, S2)

Here's an overview of the top Ivy League men's fencers, who will be competing today at Columbia in part-1 of the league's Round-Robin Championship (see previous blog post for women's fencers overview):

• MEN'S SABRE –Columbia junior Jeff Spear is the defending champion from both the NCAA Championships and the Ivy League Round-Robin (14-1) … Penn has an impressive collection of men's sabre talent: junior Jonathan Berkowsky (11th at '08 NCAAs; tied for Ivy League runner-up at 13-2), senior three-time NCAA participant Matthew Kolasa (13th in '07, 16th in '08, 17th in '06; also 6th at '08 Ivy meets, 11-4) and veteran Andrew Bielen(10th at '07 NCAAs) … the only other Ivy League men's sabreist with NCAA Tournament experience in Princeton's John Stogin(20th in '08) … beyond Penn and Columbia, it will be interesting to see how the men's sabre bouts shake out in matches involving the other four teams.

• MEN'S EPEE – This weapon also features an elite Ivy League talent, as Princeton sophomore Graham Wicas placed third at the 2008 NCAAs while Harvard fifth-year senior Benji Ungar won the 2006 NCAA men's epee title (also 7th in '05, but did not fence past two years due to bid for U.S. Olympic team) … another 2008 Olympic hopeful has returned to Ivy League fencing, in the form of Columbia two-time All-American Dwight Smith (4th at '07 NCAAs, 7th in '06) … Wicas was fifth in the '08 Ivy League Round-Robin (8-4), with four current seniors finishing above him: Columbia's Max Czapanskiy (13-2) and Lorenzo Casertano(11-4), and Yale's Michael Pearce (10-2) … Pearce is a three-time NCAA participant, earning All-America honors in 2006 (5th; also 21st in '07 and 13th in '08) … Czapanskiy earned All-America honors at the '07 NCAAs (12th) … three other current Ivy League men's epeeists competed at the 2008 NCAAs: Columbia's Casterano (15th), Brown's Adam Yarnell (20th) and Penn's Benjamin Wieder(23rd, also 17th in '07).

Here are some preview notes for today's Ivy League Round-Robin matches (12 total, with nine more in two weeks at Providence). The blog also will include a rundown of top fencers at this event, to be posted shortly:

• Columbia swept both the men's and women's Ivy League titles in 2008, after also winning both in 2007 (the Columbia men actually shared the '07 title with Harvard). Harvard won both the men's and women's Ivy League titles in 2006.

• The final men's standings in 2008 were: Columbia (5-0), Penn (4-1), Harvard (3-2), Princeton (2-3), Yale (1-4) and Brown (0-5) … the Columbia women swept all their matches (6-0), followed by Penn (5-1), Brown (3-3), Harvard (3-3), Princeton (2-4), Cornell (2-4) and Yale (0-6) … the Brown women's impressive third-place tie included wins over Princeton (16-11) and Harvard (14-13).

• COLUMBIA – both teams have fenced only eight dual meets this season (on the same weekend, at the St. John's Invitational and NYU Duals), with the 3rd-ranked men compiling only two wins (vs. six losses) while the #3 Columbia women are 6-2 … the Columbia men own wins over Wayne Syaye and Stevens Tech (both 18-9), while losing twice to co-#1 Notre Dame (10-17, 12-15), #3 Ohio State (9-18, 10-17) and #9 St. John's (9-18, 13-14) … the Lions women own two wins over #3 OSU (17-10, 15-12), along with splits against #2 ND (9-18, 14-13) and SJU (20-7, 12-15), plus wins over #6 Northwestern (16-11) and Wayne State (26-1).

Saturday's marathon day of fencing at the Notre Dame Duals – spanning 38 men's bouts and 31 between women's teams – has come to a close, with no major upsets to report. The co-#1 Notre Dame men concluded a 7-0 day (now 27-0 for the season) while the #2 Irish women won all eight of their matches and now are 28-2.

The third-ranked Ohio State men turned in a 5-0 afternoon (the OSU women are not fencing at this event), highlighted by wins over #7 Stanford (17-10) and two other top West Region teams (20-7 vs. Air Force, 19-8 vs. UC San Diego). The Stanford men went 5-1 on Saturday, with key regional wins over Air Force (15-12) and UCSD (19-8). The Air Force men posted a 16-11 win over UCSD, reversing the result from earlier in the day when the AFA and UCSD women faced off (a 22-5 Tritons win).

The OSU men's win over Stanford included seven epee wins and six in foil, with the Cardinal owning the 5-4 edge in sabre. Stanford similarly won two weapons vs. Air Force (8-1 in sabre, 6-3 in foil), with the Falcons nearly sweeping epee (8-1). The AFA-UCSD men's match featured each team winning a weapon 5-4 (the Falcons in epee and Tritons in sabre), but Air Force claimed the key 7-2 edge in epee.

Stanford freshman men's epeeist Kevin Mo – who impressively won the 2008 Junior World Cup circuit title – is not competing today at the Notre Dame Duals, due a schedule conflict (he is fencing at an international tournament in Basel, Switzerland). The Cardinal men thus are bouting today without Mo, as they take on #3 Ohio State along with fellow West Region teams Air Force and UC San Diego (plus Lawrence and the Northwestern non-varsity team).

Word is that Mo will return to the U.S. in time for Sunday's bouts at Notre Dame, when the #7-ranked Cardinal men will take on co-#1 ND, Cleveland State, Detroit and Wayne State (which features the two-time NCAA champ Slava Zingerman). 

There was some confusion as to when the Stanford and WSU men would fence each other, as the tournament schedule showed those teams facing each other at the end of each day. ... But we have received confirmation that the Stanford-WSU matchup will be in Sunday's final slot (3:00 p.m.). It's possible that the Stanford men will be facing Cal Tech in their final Saturday match (5:00) – we'll find out soon.

Rounds 5-6 from ND Duals: ... The co-#1 Notre Dame men have improved to 24-0, following wins over Detroit (21-6) and Cleveland State (23-4). The #2 Irish women also remained unbeaten today (6-0; 26-2 for the season), with near-shutout victories over those same teams (25-2 vs. UD, 26-1 vs. CSU). There were two key West Region matchups, as the #7 Stanford men defeated UC San Diego (19-8), with a similar win for the Stanford women over UCSD (17-10).

The #3 Ohio State men warmed up with a 24-3 victory over the Florida non-varsity team. Rounds 5-6 also produced three more wins by club/non-varsity teams over varsity opponents: the Michigan State men vs. Cleveland State (15-12), the Florida women over Cal Tech (18-9) and the MSU women vs. Cleveland State (22-5). The Florida women have racked up four wins today over varsity opponents while the MSU women have defeated three varsity teams.

NOTRE DAME DUALS (rounds 1-6)

Stanford 15 (F4, E5, S6), Air Force 12 (F5, E4, S3)
Stanford 17 (F4, E8, S5), UC San Diego 10 (F5, E1, S4)
Stanford 20 (F6, E9, S5), Wayne State 7 (F3, E0, S4)
Stanford 15 (F6, E5, S5), Michigan State 4 (F3, E4, S4)

Rounds 3-4 have completed at the Notre Dame Duals, with the #2 Irish women picking up two noteworthy wins (21-6 vs. UC San Diego, 23-4 vs. Air Force) while the co-#1 ND men have opened their Saturday matches with victories over Cal Tech (22-5) and the Florida club team (21-6). Note that an earlier match, between the ND-UCSD men, was cancelled.

Possibly the most noteworthy match of the late morning saw the Stanford women defeat fellow West Region team Air Force, 15-12 (the Cardinal won six sabre bouts, plus five in epee and four in foil). There were four more wins by non-varsity club teams over varsity squads (all women): Florida vs. Cleveland State (19-8) and Lawrence (20-7), Michigan State vs. in-state foe Detroit (19-8), and Oberlin vs. Lawrence (23-4). It should be noted that Lawrence is not fielding a women's sabre team at this event, and thus is forfeiting all nine points in that weapon

CF360 did some checking on Florida and discovered that the Gators were one of the nation's top fencing clubs a year ago, placing third at the national meet (sponsored by the U.S. Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs). The Florida women finished first at that '08 national club tournament, with first-place finishes in both women's foil and epee (9th in sabre).

Some of the top veteran fencers from teams in the 14-team field at the 2009 Notre Dame Duals are listed below. Also note that several newcomers – such as Notre Dame men's foilist Gerek Meinhardt (the youngest Olympian in U.S. fencing history) and national junior epee champions Kevin Mo (Stanford) and Courtney Hurley (ND) – could prove to be some of the nation's top collegiate fencers this season.

Four of the six fencers who won 2008 NCAA titles are from teams in the 2009 Notre Dame Duals field: Wayne State men's epeeist Slava Zingerman (NCAA champ in '07 and '08), Ohio State men's foilist Andras Horanyi (also a two-time NCAA individual champion), ND women's epeeist Kelley Hurley and ND women's sabreist Sarah Borrmann (the other two 2008 NCAA champions were current Columbia men's sabreist Jeff Spear and former St. John's women's foilist Monika Golebiewski).

Horanyi – who is pictured at left – also was the 2006 NCAA runner-up (behind former OSU teammate Boaz Ellis) while ND's Hurley was the '07 runner-up, as a freshman. The 14-team field includes one other fencer who has been an NCAA runner-up: Ohio State men's sabreist Mike Momtselidze ('08; also 4th in '07).

Here are some highlights from today's men's fencing action at Duke, featuring Notre Dame, UNC and Johns Hopkins (plus the host Blue Devils). See earlier blog post for all six team scores from this event.

• Duke foil newcomer Dan Cohen was the only fencer to go 9-0, while three others – Duke two-time sabre All-American Peter Truszkowski and the ND veteran duo of sabreist Bill Thanhouser and foilist Mark Kubik –each were 8-1. Duke epeeist Jonathan Parker and UNC sabreist Bobby Ziechmann also had strong days, each going 7-2. 

• 10th-ranked Duke nearly handed co-#1 Notre Dame (20-0) its first loss of the season, in a thrilling match that came down to the final bout (ND won six epee bouts, plus four each in foil and sabre). The Irish – who will play host to the ND Duals starting early Saturday morning – opted to not send several top fencers to Duke, most notably Olympic foilist Gerek Meinhardt and sabre All-American Barron Nydam (also sabreist Avery Zuck and foilist Enzo Castellani).

In addition to 3-0 records from Truszkowski and Dan Cohen, Duke had three fencers (foilists Dorian Cohen, epeeist Samuel Schack and sabreist Laughlin Stewart) post 2-1 records vs. the Irish. All three Irish epeeists – Karol Kostka, Brent Kelly and Greg Schoolcraft – likewise went 2-1 in the  ND-Duke match, as did Thanhouser and Mark Kubik.

The two-day Notre Dame Duals will feature several top-10 teams, with the third-ranked Ohio State men to fence only on Saturday (Feb. 7; the OSU women will not compete at ND) while the #6 Northwestern women will fence in Sunday's bouts only (NU's women will be at the Duke Duals on Saturday). The host Fighting Irish are the co-#1 team in the men's poll and #2 among the nation's women's fencing teams. Stanford's men's team is ranked #7 while several other teams at the ND Duals include fencers who could advance to the NCAAs (most notably Wayne State's men and Stanford's women, plus the men's and women's team from both Air Force and UC San Diego). 

Four of the six fencers who won 2008 NCAA titles are from teams in the 2009 Notre Dame Duals field: Wayne State men's epeeist Slava Zingerman (NCAA champ in '07 and '08), Ohio State men's foilist Andras Horanyi (also a two-time NCAA individual champion), ND women's epeeist Kelley Hurley and ND women's sabreist Sarah Borrmann (the other two 2008 NCAA champions were current Columbia men's sabreist Jeff Spear and former St. John's women's foilist Monika Golebiewski).

Here's a look back at some of the women's team and individual highlights from the M.I.T. Invitational (Feb. 1), with men's highlights still to come:

• Due to an incorrectly totalled scoresheet, the CF360 blog misreported over the weekend that the NYU women had upset #10 Duke. Instead, Duke won the epee competition vs. NYU, 7-2, and thus the Blue Devils were the 16-11 winner. However, M.I.T. did score a 15-12 upset over Duke, behind a balanced effort with six foil wins, five in epee and four in sabre. M.I.T. epeeist Stephanie Shin and foilist Lindley Graham each went 3-0 in the win over the Blue Devils.

• In the only women's matchup between top-10 teams (#5 Harvard over #9 Duke, 18-9), Olympic bronze medalist Becca Ward swept her Harvard opponents. Five of the Harvard women's fencers have competed in previous NCAA Championships (none from Duke), and most of the Crimson veterans defeated their Blue Devil counterparts, although Duke's Dana Rosen did score a 5-2 win over two-time NCAA foil participant Arielle Pensler 

• Apologies for not releasing fencers of the week yet, but we still are hoping to nail down some of the won-loss records (and key results) for individual fencers from the Northwestern Duals (namely the Ohio State kids, some from Wayne State, etc.). As soon as we can add those fencers to the pool of candidates, we will honor the outstanding performers from the past week.

• In addition to the blog entries for regular-season tournaments, we hope to ramp up coverage for the various conference tournaments, the four NCAA Regional events and then of course the four-day NCAA Championships. Some of you may not be aware that the various conference tournament have no bearing on individual fencer qualification for the NCAAs (in fact, many top fencers often have to miss those events due to World Cup conflicts, and some also elect not to fence if they are nursing a minor injury). On the other hand, the Regional competitions are mandatory for individual NCAA qualification and constitute 60% of a fencer's qualification for the NCAAs. The other 40% is based on a fencer's "seeding factor" entering the Regional, and that seed is based on how a fencer did in regular-season bouts versus varsity opponents (results vs. club/non-varsity opponents are thrown out, as are all bouts in the conference tournaments, such as the Ivy League and Midwest Fencing Conference championships).

The West Region fencing teams – namely Stanford, Air Force and UC San Diego – often can be overlooked at this time of year, but some elite fencers have competed for those teams in recent years (namely national-team standouts such as Air Force epeeist Seth Kelsey and Stanford foilist Iris Zimmermann). The region took a bit of a hit last spring, when Cal State Fullerton dropped its varsity fencing program – leaving the above three programs (plus Cal Tech) as the only teams competing in the West Region.

Even when the West does not boast many contenders for NCAA individual titles, the entrants from the West often end up playing key "spoiler" roles in their bouts against the top teams/fencers. It's been nearly a decade since a West-Region team was in the running for the NCAA team title, reaching back to the 2000 season (when Stanford placed fourth, only 12 points out of the top spot). The Cardinal was fourth again in 2001 – but 51 points out of first place – and Stanford has finished no higher than fifth in the past seven NCAA Championships (6th in '02, 7th in '03, 10th in '04, 11th in '05, 7th in '06, 9th in '07 and 8th in '08). Air Force has finished as high as ninth (in '03) and as low as 21st ('08) during the current decade.

FYI – We still are hoping to pass along some more details from the past weekend's tournaments. (including UC San Diego). We have crunched some numbers from the Eric Sollee Invitational (at M.I.T.) and will be able to report on how some of the more noteworthy fencers did at that event.

We also will be announcing fencers of the week – late tonight or tomorrow.

In general, stay tuned because the site will continue to add features throughout the next two months. Please feel free to pass along any feedback, corrections, suggestions, etc.

We've had nearly 600 unique visitors to the site (basically over the past 10 days), without any real sort of advertising or promotion. Not sure if that is a good number, but it's safe to say that we hope to be filling a need to help fans, media, etc. keep up-to-speed on college fencing.

Thanks go out to the folks at M.I.T., who forwarded all of their scoresheets from the Eric Sollee Invitational. Most of the final team scores are included below. In the men's matches, the four top-10 teams (#5 Princeton, #6 Pennsylvania, #7 Harvard and #10 Duke) combined to go 18-0 versus a collection of unranked opponents. On the women's side, #5 Harvard beat #10 Duke. 18-9, and the M.I.T. women upset the #10 Blue Devils, 15-12. More notes on this event to come, time permitting.

(note: we will have limited blog postings during the Super Bowl, but will catch up later in the night)

It could be tricky tracking down men's results from Sunday's final rounds at the Northwestern Duals, as Northwestern is not posting the scores online (since the NU men's program is a club/non-varsity). We are hoping to receive some data later in the night and will try to piece together info. from websites of the participating schools.

We did receive notice that the co-#1 Notre Dame men's team defeated #3 Ohio State, 15-12. It is the eighth win for the Irish over a top-10 opponent, spanning the past two weekends.

One note to pass on from Sunday's earlier women's bouts: Northwestern's three-time All-America foilist Samantha Nemecek won all nine of her bouts and finished 18-2 in the two-day event.

Again, we will be posting more from today's various tournaments – later tonight, after the Super Bowl.

The women's bouts have concluded at the Northwestern Duals, with Sunday's 25 matches including six between top-10 teams. The only top-10 upset came in a one-point match, as #8 Temple edged the homestanding #6 Wildcats (14-13). Second-ranked Notre Dame went 5-0 to complete an undefeated record and move to 17-2 for the season, with key Sunday wins over #3 Ohio State (17-10, avenging a loss the previous week at the NYU Duals), the host Wildcats (16-11) and #10 North Carolina (23-4). OSU (22-5) and Temple (19-8) also added wins over UNC.

Ohio State – which edged ND last week (14-13) – won Sunday's foil bouts versus the Irish (5-4), but ND won seven epee bouts and six in sabre. The ND-Northwestern women's foil rivalry has been fierce throughout the current decade and that continued to be the case today, with the Wildcats claiming a 7-2 win in the weapon (ND owned a commanding 8-1 edge in epee, plus 6-3 in foil). The Irish shut out UNC in foil, plus 8-1 in epee and 6-3 in sabre. The OSU win over UNC featured a similar sweep in foil, with the Buckeyes also winning eight sabre bouts and five in epee.

Sunday's action at the M.I.T./Brandeis Eric Sollee Invitational (held at M.I.T.) will feature a handful of elite collegiate fencers, plus 14 former All-Americans and 35 who have competed in previous NCAA Championships. We have not been able to locate a full schedule for this event, but several of the participating schools have posted their bouting order for the event at M.I.T.:

• Harvard (#7 men/#5 women) – vs. M.I.T., Yeshiva and #10 Duke (times not available).

• Princeton (#5 men/#7 women) –  vs. NYU (8:30), Brandeis (10:00), M.I.T. (noon), Boston College (1:30) and Haverford (3:00).

• Pennsylvania (#6 men/#9 women) – schedule not available at this time

• Duke (#10 men/#10 women) – vs. Boston College (8:30), NYU (10:00), Brandeis (noon), #7/#5 Harvard (1:30), M.I.T. (3:00) and Haverford (4:30)

10-team field includes Boston College, Brandeis, Duke, Harvard, Haverford, M.I.T., NYU, Penn, Princeton and Yeshiva.

It appears that the only matchup at M.I.T. between top-10 teams will be Harvard versus Duke, so it will be interesting to see the results from bouts between top fencers from those teams.

(Thanks to postings on the Penn State and Notre Dame websites, we were able to glean some details from Saturday's women's bouts ... as more details become available, namely for matches involving Ohio State and UNC, we will pass along that info.).

Saturday morning's marquee matchup pitted at the NU Duals pitted the top-ranked Penn State women versus #2 Notre Dame, with the Irish claiming the 19-8 victory. PSU was limited by the absence of freshman sabreist Monika Askamit (who is competing at a Junior World Cup), but ND used a balanced effort (seven wins in epee; six each in foil and sabre) to claim the win.

The PSU-ND women's match was tight through 11 bouts (6-5 ND lead), before the Irish won four straight for a 10-5 cushion. Penn State managed to win the next two bouts (10-7), but ND then clinched as part of a stunning eight straight victories.

Notre Dame women from each weapon – foilist Hayley Reese, epeeist Ewa Nelip and sabreist Eileen Hassett – each went 3-0 in the 19-8 win over the Nittany Lions, while PSU foilist Doris Willette and sabreist Caity Thompson both had two wins (equaling the victory total, four, from their teammates' 21 combined bouts).