Women's fencing takes fifth at New England's

Only a sophomore, Tufts sabrist Kat Zouein has already amassed quite a collection of honors and awards that recognize her successes on the fencing strip.

Saturday evening, after a grueling day that stretched from early morning to after sunset, Zouein added one more, successfully defending her crown as the New England sabre champion. Earlier in the day, Zouein led the Jumbos in the team competition of the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Championships, where Tufts placed fifth in a field of 14 at the Gantcher Center.

Heavy favorite MIT won the women's team title, followed by Brandeis, Brown, Boston College, and Tufts. On the men's side, Brandeis took first, with Boston College and MIT rounding out the top three. Tufts does not have a varsity men's fencing team.

In the team competition, the Jumbos won 57 of 106 bouts. The saber squad, composed of Kat, her freshman sister Louisa May Zouein, and fellow first year Tiffany Tran, posted Tufts' best results, winning 22 of 34 bouts and placing third. The foil squad went 20-17 and took seventh, while Tufts' epeeists went 15-20, good for sixth.

"The epee team should have been totally outmatched but they did great all day long," coach Jason Sachs said in reference to senior epee captain Talia Alexander, sophomore Regan Cerrato, and freshman Elisabeth Sibley. "As a coach, Elisabeth and Regan's progress was part of the enjoyment of the day. I'm very proud of them."

Sachs said that while Kat Zouein's victory was certainly a thrill, watching his less experienced athletes flourish under pressure was at least as pleasing.

"The small things are sometimes better than the big things," Sachs said. "Sometimes you remember why you coach, and it's not just about winning and losing, it's about seeing individual progress."

Based on their performances in the team competition, Kat (10-2) and Louisa May Zouein (9-3) were among the nine saber athletes to move on to the individual competition. Louisa May was initially tied with Kelly Krause of Boston University, but a 5-1 victory in the tie-breaker bout sent Louisa May to the champions pool. Sophomore foilest Julia Shih also advanced to the individual round, following a 7-5 performance in the team competition.

"Julia beat one of the best fencers at the competition to move up," Kat Zouein said, referring to MIT junior Susannah Dorfman. "She lost to her before, so we were really excited for Julia and she was very excited too."

Overall though, Shih did not perform as well as she would have liked to, finishing eighth among the nine foil finalists. Earlier in the day, Sachs said that Shih and senior foil captain Christina Zahara (8-5) seemed to lose their focus a bit.

"They started fencing like they didn't want to get hit instead of like they wanted to control the action," Sachs said.

The sabre pool proved to be psychologically difficult for Tufts' fencers as well, as the Zouein sisters were forced to battle each other in the first round of individual bouts.

"Louisa May and I are pretty equally matched when it comes down to it," Kat said. "It's just a matter of who's fencing better that day."

A 5-1 victory over her younger sister started Kat on an undefeated streak that culminated in her re-crowning as New England sabre champion. In the finals, Zouein beat MIT's Priscilla del Castillo 5-1, who had defeated her earlier in the day.

"I dropped one or two I shouldn't have at the beginning, but after that things picked up and I could see a definite improvement in the way I was fencing," Kat said.

Louisa May wound up going 5-3 in the individual championships, which landed her in third overall. Sachs said he was very proud not only of her results, but also of how she handled the emotional aspect of losing to her sister.

"I give Louisa May a lot of credit. What's amazing is she shook it off and kept her focus," Sachs said. "And this was after they'd been fencing for ten hours."