Women's Fencing | Tufts goes 1−2 at Eric Sollee Invitational

One week after finishing 2−4 at their first conference meet of the semester at Boston College, the Tufts varsity women's fencing team returned to action at Brandeis University's Eric Sollee Invitational on Saturday. At a meet that featured schools both within and outside of the Northeastern Fencing Conference, the Jumbos finished 1−2 against non−conference opponents Hunter College, Johns Hopkins and UPenn.

The tournament was punctuated by Tufts' 19−8 victory against Hunter, which saw seven wins each for the epee and sabre squads and five wins for the foil squad. The Jumbos had a tougher time against Johns Hopkins, losing 18−9, and versus nationally ranked UPenn, which dominated Tufts 22−5. Overall, the epee, sabre and foil squads finished 11−16, 14−13, and 8−19, respectively.

"[UPenn and Johns Hopkins] are our theoretical competition once we reach the level we want to be at," senior sabre captain Sarah Danly said. "It was a chance to fence good schools that we usually don't get to fence."

The foil squad struggled to compete after losing three of its members last weekend.

"The foil team is kind of in a transition period right now," newly appointed junior foil captain Kelly Manser said.

"[The foil squad] doesn't have the same amount of experience that our other squads do and a lot of the foilists at other schools do at this point."

A majority of the Jumbos' foilists began their fencing careers at Tufts, unlike athletes from opposing teams whose careers have spanned middle and high school.

"Our freshmen are especially dedicated," Manser said. "I think [Anjali Shankar] is definitely going to be a key player as she gets older on the squad, and [Isabella Connelly] is very important."

Head coach Ariana Klinkov made notable lineup changes at the invitational, one of which was to switch sophomore epee captain Laurel Hutchison to foil against Johns Hopkins in hopes of notching additional victories for the foil squad.

As for the epee squad, there is hope that the addition of highly rated freshman Katharine Lynch and the return of junior Abby Hepworth from her semester abroad will help the team overcome the loss of two key fencers last year.

The sabre group continues to lead the Jumbos and has enough depth to rotate three fencers of different strengths in and out of the third starting position, depending on the scouting report. Freshman sabre Sarah Innes−Gold, a non−starter until she entered the lineup at last week's conference meet, earned several individual victories over the weekend.

"The sabre squad is the strongest it's been since I've been at Tufts," Danly said. "It's the first time we've had all of our subs be really strong fencers ... We're all really proud of [Innes−Gold]."

Individually, sophomore sabreist Julia Hisey led the team in scoring with six victories, followed by Danly and Hutchison with five wins each.

This weekend, the varsity team travels west for its third meet in three weeks, leaving early for the 9 a.m. start at UMass Amherst on Saturday. The fencers will look to close out their short conference season on a high note.