Despite a mild setback in its last meet at the MIT invitational last Saturday, the women's fencing team is maintaining its optimistic outlook for the season.
"Learning to fence is a lot like learning a new language," coach Jason Sachs said. "You can't expect to pick it up immediately. It takes some time." After going 3-3 in the last meet, it is clear that the Jumbos are not yet fluent in the language of fencing, though they are getting there.
The team traveled to MIT and faced some of its toughest competition of the season at the last meet in the forms of Brandeis, MIT, Harvard, and Brown. While scoring an encouraging 7-2 victory over Brown, the Jumbos were not so fortunate against the other three powerhouses. The Jumbos fell to all three schools, each by a score of 3-6.
Despite these key losses, the team did manage a final score of 3-3 on the day, as they handily disposed of Boston University and Dartmouth by convincing scores of 6-3 and 8-1, respectively. This gives the Jumbos a solid record of 7-4 on the year.
Although the teams did not pull out wins against the stronger opposition, their play remained encouraging.
"We lost a lot of bouts 5-4." Sachs said. "The meet was very close the whole way."
The play of the sabre and foil teams remains the team's strong point, while the epee team, however, is still somewhat shaky.
While the play of Amy Dickinson, the lone senior for the jumbos and leader of the epee team, remains strong, the rest of the group is still in learning stages. This is partially responsible for the number of very close losses at the meet.
"I have such high expectations of what the epee should be," Dickinson said, "so it's hard to see us lose. I feel that I have to win all three of my bouts if we are going to win."
"Once the players gain more experience they will know what to do in those close situations." Sachs said.
The team refuses to be discouraged by their losses to the bigger teams. It is still very early in the season, and the team boasts a strong 7-4 record.
"We're almost there, but not quite yet." Sachs said. "We have to get over that hump."
The team's goals for the season remain the same, as well as the goal of qualifying one or more fencers for the national competition. With a little time and some patience the team is confident they can master this language of fencing.
Other encouraging news for the team was the results from the Junior Olympic qualifying meet this past weekend. The under-20 year old members of the team traveled with Sachs to the meet and returned having qualified three individuals for the Junior Olympic meet later this year. Freshman Emily Finn of the foil team qualified along with sophomore Diana Deluca and freshman Casara Williams of the sabre team.
