• Columbia (+67) and Penn (+59) tied for the IFA women's sabre title for the second straight year (the Lions also won outright in '07), with each team's three fencers posting combined 25-8 records in their flight bouts (Harvard and Princeton both were a few wins behind, as each went 22-11). The Lions likely would have won the '09 title outright, if not for the absence of their All-Americans Daria Schneider and Jackie Jacobson. ... Columbia's dynamic freshman duo Sam Roberts (8-3/+23) and Stephanie Aiuto (9-2/+29) still combined to go 17-5, with another rookie – little-used Narine Atamian – stepping up to go 8-3 (+15) in her flight-C bouts ... Penn's talented trio countered with 25 wins of their own, led by yet another top Ivy League rookie (Dominika Franciskowicz, 10-1/+29), along with two-time NCAA qualifier Alexis Baran (9-2/+20) and sophomore All-American Danielle Kamis (6-5/+10).
• The Columbia and Penn fencers were shut out of the title bout, with Aiuto (the #10 seed in the DE) losing a 15-11 semifinal to MIT freshman Robin Shin (#3), while Havard super rookie Carolina Vloka (#1) handed Kamis a 15-10 loss in the same round. ... Vloka – who went 10-1 (+29) in her flight-A bouts – went on to post a comfortable win over Shin (15-6) in the title bout, one week after tying Aiuto atop the Ivy League women's sabre standings. Vloka became Havard's third fencer to win the IFA women's sabre title (first since '03).
• Aiuto finished second in flight-B before registering two of the five upsets (based on DE seed) in the direct-elimination phase: 15-8 versus Princeton's Caroline Merx (#7) in the round-of-16, and 15-11 vs. #6 seed Anna Hanley of Brandeis (in the quarterfinals), before losing to Shin in the semifinals.
• The biggest upset (based on seed) happened when the #2 seed Roberts made her early exit, losing a one-touch bout to #15 seed Lyuba Docheva (Princeton) in the round-of-16. ... Penn's Franciskowitz (#9 seed) scored a minor upset, in her 15-5 victory over #8 seed Chelsea Rosenbauer of Boston College.
• Two of the quarterfinals were won by the lower-seeded fencers: Aiuto over Hanley, and #5 Kamis versus #4 seed Deborah Gorth (Brown) in a 15-6 bout. ... the other quarterfinals featured Vloka's easy win over Franciskowicz (15-7) and Shin's 15-9 victory versus Docheva.
IFA Women's Sabre Round-of-16
(1) Caroline Vloka (HARV) def. (16) Alexis Baran (Yale) ... 15-6
(15) Lyuba Docheva (PRIN) def. (2) Sam Roberts (COL) ... 15-14
(3) Robin Shin (MIT) def. (14) Charlotte Rose (Brown) ... 15-13
(4) Deborah Gorth (Brown) def. (13) Alex Turner (BRAN) ... 15-10
(5) Danielle Kamis (Penn) def. (12) Katherine Arden (Yale) ... 15-7
(6) Anna Hanley (BRAN) def. (11) Hayley Levitt (HARV) ... 15-10
(10) Stephanie Aiuto (COL) def. (7) Caroline Merx (PRIN) ... 15-8
(9) Dominika Franciskowicz (Penn) def. (8) Chelsea Rosenbauer (BC) ... 15-5
Quarterfinals
(1) Caroline Vloka (HARV) def. (9) Dominika Franciskowicz (Penn) ... 15-7
(3) Robin Shin (MIT) def. (15) Lyuba Docheva (PRIN) ... 15-9
(5) Danielle Kamis (Penn) def. (4) Deborah Gorth (Brown) ... 15-6
(10) Stephanie Aiuto (COL) def. (6) Anna Hanley (BRAN) ... 15-11
Semifinals
(1) Caroline Vloka (HARV) def. (5) Danielle Kamis (Penn) ... 15-10
(3) Robin Shin (MIT) def. (10) Stephanie Aiuto (COL) ... 15-11
Final
(1) Caroline Vloka (HARV) def. (3) Robin Shin (MIT) ... 15-6
2009 IFA Women's Sabre Final Top-16 Data (field of 38)
1. Caroline Vloka (HARV) ... #1 DE seed ... 10-1 in flight-A (+29)
2. Robin Shin (MIT) ... #3 DE seed ... 7-4 in flight-A (+12)
3. Danielle Kamis (Penn) ... #5 DE seed ... 6-5 in flight-A (+10)
3. Stephanie Aiuto (COL) ... #10 DE seed ... 9-2 in flight-B (+29)
5. Deborah Gorth (Brown) ... #4 DE seed ... 7-4 in flight-A (+2)
6. Anna Hanley (BRAN) ... #6 DE seed ... 6-5 in flight-A (+5)
7. Dominika Franciszkowicz (Penn) ... #9 DE seed ... 10-1 in flight-B (+29)
8. Lyuba Docheva (PRIN) ... #15 DE seed ... 9-2 in flight-C (+24)
9. Sam Roberts (COL) ... #2 DE seed ... 8-3 in flight-A (+23)
10. Caroline Merz (PRIN) ... #7 DE seed ... 6-5 in flight-A (+1)
11. Chelsea Rosenbauer (BC) ... #8 DE seed ... 5-6 in flight-A (-3)
12. Hayley Levitt (HARV) ... #11 DE seed ... 9-2 in flight-B (+20)
13. Katherine Arden (Yale) ... #12 DE seed ... 7-4 in flight-B (+12)
14. Alex Turner (BRAN) ... #13 DE seed ... 7-2 in flight-B (+11)
15. Charlotte Rose (Brown) ... #14 DE seed ... 10-1 in flight-C (+32)
16. Alexis Baran (Penn) ... #16 DE seed ... 9-2 in flight-C (+20)
2009 IFA Women's Sabre Final Team Standings
1. Columbia 25-8 (+67) ... Sam Roberts 8-3, Stephanie Aiuto 9-2, Narine Atamian 8-3
1. Pennsylvania 25-8 (+59) ... Danielle Kamis 6-5, Dominika Franciskowicz 10-1, Alexis Baran 9-2
3. Harvard 22-11 (+37) ... Caroline Vloka 10-1, Hayley Levitt 9-2, Yunsoo Kim 3-8
4. Princeton 22-11 (+36) ... Caroline Merz 6-5, Biance Cabrera 7-4, Lyuba Docheva 9-2
5. Brown 20-13 (+17) ... Deborah Gorth 7-4, Ola Kozminsky 3-8, Charlotte Rose 10-1
6. MIT 18-15 (+21) ... Robin Shin 7-4, Molly Kozminsky 3-8, Lauren Chilton 8-3
7. Yale 17-16 (-6) ... Jennifer Ivers 4-7, Katherine Arden 7-4, Farrah Kimovec 6-5
8. Brandeis 15-18 (-6) ... Anna Hanley 6-5, Alex Turner 7-4, Jennifer Press 2-9
9. Boston College 14-19 (-20) ... Chelsea Rosenbauer 5-6, Amanda Cortes 4-7, Syringa Ko 5-6
10. NYU 9-24 (-56) ... Jillian Bray 0-11, Alex Mattison 6-5, Eliza Friar 3-8
11. Cornell 7-26 (-48) ... Alex Heiss 4-7, Alison Wollenberg 1-10, Kate Halpin 2-8, Emily Kearney 0-1
12. Vassar 4-29 (-101) ... Julie Carlsen 3-8, Domino Gehred-O'Connell 0-11, Jillian Press 2-9, Vanora Estridge 0-6