Last weekend's meet for women's fencing can be chalked up as a good learning experience for the Jumbos. After a strong second place finish at the Wellesley Invitational two weekends ago, Tufts was soundly defeated by two very good squads, Duke University and New York University, at the MIT Invitational.
The Jumbos lost 5-22 to the Blue Devils and 10-17 to the Violets. The meet also featured groups from Cornell, University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis. Despite the losses, coach Jason Sachs had a positive outlook on the outcome of the meet.
"Both results have silver linings, though, as it really helped some of our individual fencers for qualifying paths to the NCAA Regional qualifiers," Sachs said. "Fencing, unlike most of the other collegiate sports, does not differentiate between Div. I and III schools. NYU and Duke are two really strong programs."
Women's fencing is a young program, and has a lot of potential for growth. The epee team, which has only been fencing together for a few months, had to face two very strong epee teams, and ultimately lost 1-8 against the Blue Devils and 0-9 against the Violets.
"While it is hard watching your fencers lose bouts, I know in the long run this is the investment we have to make in order to continue the growth of our team," Sachs added.
The foil squad fared better, winning their bout against the NYU squad, with freshman foilist Jamie Kraut going undefeated in her match.
The sabre group lost a close bout 4-5 against NYU. Individually, sophomore sabrist Louisa-Mae Zouein had another strong outing, going 1-2 against Duke and 2-1 against NYU. In the Duke match, Zouein defeated a fencer who finished 10th at the NCAA tournament last year.
Overall, it has been a good year for women's fencing, and Sachs has been very pleased with the team's attitude and growth.
"They work hard, support each other and are learning at a tremendous rate. This truly is one of the best teams that I have coached," Sachs said.
With last year's MVP, junior Katherine Zouein, in Lebanon for the semester and the epee team's top fencer recently leaving the team, the team has placed a lot of hope on its young fencers.
"We have some very talented freshman this year, who are going to be very, very good," Sachs said. "We are very competitive and that is all I can really ask them to do."
The team will have a chance to prove themselves this weekend when Tufts hosts its first home meet of the semester. BC, Wellesley, BU, Dartmouth and UNH will all compete at the meet, and the team is looking forward to the challenge.
"Despite being a very young team, we are extremely talented and I have no doubt that this weekend's meet will be sure to highlight the extraordinary promise of our team," junior foil captain Julia Shih said.
The meet will be held in the Gantcher Center this Saturday, Feb. 12, and will feature both the women's and men's teams.
"I think our girls will prevail as long as they keep their focus and stay on task," Sachs said. "Both teams, men and women, have worked hard this year and this will be a good meet for our program to shine."
