Returning much of its roster from a consistent and solid 2004-2005 season, and filling open spaces with some new talent, the fencing team is feeling good about its winter season campaign.
"We've got lots of new freshmen, but we also didn't lose many of our good fencers from last season," said sophomore and men's team captain Dan Tovrov. "We're really optimistic about this coming season."
Tufts has a varsity women's fencing team and a club men's team, both members of the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference.
The women's team has already competed in two tournaments, most recently at Fairleigh Dickinson University for the NEIWFA Invitational last Sunday. The Jumbos competed against a field of teams which included Temple, the University of Florida, Johns Hopkins, and Drew University. The event was an individual competition, and the team got strong performances from several fencers.
Senior Katherine Zouein placed fourth in sabre, junior Donna Au was the top seed in the epee group, and freshman Christine Lee took second in the foil category with an encouraging start to her rookie season.
"Christine's a freshman, and she's doing really well," Zouein said. "We're all really excited about that."
The women's team also competed at Harvard on Nov. 30 in a head-to-head team meet, falling to the Crimson.
"Harvard always has an exceptionally good team," Zouein said. "I think we fenced well anyway."
The women's team has many tournaments lined up for the spring semester.
After returning from winter break, the Jumbos will head to the Wellesley Invitational to face Wellesley, Cornell and Vassar on Jan. 28. The next day the team will face Yale and Sacred Heart at Yale.
In February, the women's team will compete against NYU and the University of North Carolina at Brandeis. Until then, the team will keep up its practice schedule of four days a week in Jackson Gym that helps it remain sharp.
The men's team, which participates in the New England Conference, a multi-divisional league fielding teams from schools as diverse as fellow NESCAC member Amherst, Smith, Brown, Dartmouth, BU, and BC, has participated in two events so far this season. The team sent several fencers to "The Big One," an individual competition held at Smith College on Nov. 5. The Jumbos earned two top finishes in the field of 60 foil fencers, as Tovrov took the bronze at third and senior Misha Genin placed sixth.
A few weeks later, the team competed in a conference meet against Brandeis, MIT, and Brown, three of the toughest teams in the conference, which showed in the Jumbos' 0-3 record.
"We were missing a couple of our starters that day, and we played the hardest teams in the conference," Tovrov said.
The team will take a long break from organized competition, as its schedule is empty until February, when Tufts will host a conference tournament. In the meantime, the team will work towards its season goal of earning a spot at the club Nationals.
