This weekend, the women's fencing team traveled to Haverford College in Pennsylvania to compete in the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing
championships (NIWFA). The event featured 16 teams from the East Coast, including Temple University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Florida, U.S. Military Academy and Drew University. Although Tufts still finished in the top 10 at the event, three exhausting weekends of competition finally took their toll on the Jumbos.
"The team did OK. Not great," coach Sachs said. "Driving out to Philly the night before and fencing the next morning was difficult, and contributed to our flat beginning. The team was clearly tired and it affected their fencing."
Despite the handicap, the team still finished strong, especially the foil squad, who finished in third place out of the 16 teams, sending all three of its members to the individual round. The sabre group finished in seventh place, and the epee squad took 11th.
The format of the tournament was similar to last week's New England Championships, with each school's fencers competing in A, B and C slots. The top nine A fencers, the top five B fencers and the top two C fencers all moved on to direct elimination individual round.
Five of the team's nine fencers moved to the individual round, including junior foilist Julia Shih and sophomore sabrist Louisa May Zouein, who each took third in their respective weapon categories. Freshmen foilists Jamie Kraut, Emily Cooperman and sabrist Diana Barger also made it to the individuals.
For the foil team, Kraut went 10-5 in the A slot, Shih was 9-6 in the B slot and Cooperman was 12-3 in the C slot. Zouein finished 12-3 in the A slot and Barger finished 12-3 in the B slot. A highlight for the epee group was the performance of freshman Katherine Zeis, who won seven of her bouts.
"We had a good time," Sachs said. "The freshman this year received valuable experience. I bet next year we will be much stronger in this tournament because we will host it, so rest should not be a factor."
Despite the Jumbos' successful showing, overall the team was less than excited about the tournament, according to Zouein, who lost 14-15 in the sabre individual round.
"The meet was fine," Zouein said. "There was a lot less heart at this meet. There were a lot of girls, and a lot of them were just tired."
The meet offered some excitement, however, in the individual foil competition, where teammates Kraut and Shih had to face off against one another in the first round.
"Fencing a teammate in an individual tournament is usually a very stressful experience," Shih said. "You practice with these people all week long, you know their strengths and their weaknesses and they know yours."
Shih won her bout against Kraut and the following, before losing to the ultimate winner of the foil tournament.
"Julia especially was awesome," Zouein said. "She had so much focus and endurance after a long day of fencing. She beat some excellent fencers to place third in individual. We were all so proud of her. She's got so much patience."
The entire team will have to show these qualities at next weekend's NCAA regional finals, which will be the last match of the season for those on the team who do not advance. This will be a major test for the Jumbos participating, as the team will face some of its stiffest competition yet.
"We are in the strongest region in the country," Sachs said, "where many schools have Olympic level caliber fencers, so if someone squeaks through to NCAA Championships it would be a major accomplishment."
Shih, Zouein, Kraut, Cooperman and Barger will all compete at the meet, which will be held at Yale University. Whatever the results, Shih is sad to see the season approaching its end.
"We spend so much time with each other, with all the practices and through many long meets," Shih said. "We're there to celebrate everyone's highs and we're there with our support for the lows. We have an incredible team this year and I'm sad to see it end because they have really become part of my extended family."
