After opening its weekend tournament with a series of losses, the Tufts saber squad redeemed itself, recording a close victory over defending club fencing champion UMass.
Led by sophomore saber captain David Kaminsky and classmate Jake Shapiro, the saber fencers clinched the victory for Tufts. With their success in Saturday's tournament, the fencers are one step closer to their ultimate goal of reaching the club championships.
"The win over UMass felt great, because they're one of those schools that's about at our level, so it's very competitive," said Jeremy White, a freshman epee fencer.
Fencing competitions feature three fencers from each weapon category: foil, epee, and saber. Each fencer faces off against fencers of the same weapon, totaling nine fights per weapon and 27 fights between each of the two dueling schools. A team needs at least 14 wins to take the match.
"We had strong performances from our foil squad throughout," senior co-captain Dave Werth said. "Our saber team really surprised us at the end [of the UMass match]." Tufts began the tournament poorly, suffering a loss to Boston College. However, BC would be the only match Tufts would drop on the day as the Jumbos moved on to face Boston University. Despite falling in the saber competition, Tufts' showing in the foil matches was enough to eke out a Jumbo victory.
"We're generally a stronger team then BU, but we were barely able to squeeze out the victory," Werth said.
The team stayed in the same pattern against Dartmouth, coming up with another foil victory but dropping the saber matches. Against the University of New Hampshire, however, both weapons won their matches. The epee team won its first seven bouts against the UNH team to finish 7-2 in that round.
The last team Tufts faced was UMass. Foil was as strong as it had been all day, pulling out a victory, but the clincher was the saber squad's 5-4 victory, including Shapiro's key win over UMass' No. 1 fencer.
"Our win over UMass was huge," senior co-captain Dan Tovrov said. "That was the team we cared the most about beating. It gave us the most competition and it's one of the best club teams.
While the team's success depended on the entire roster, with the foil squad fencing very well and the saber squad coming through in the clutch, the tournament also featured some great individual performances.
Tovrov continued his strong year in Saturday's match and Kaminsky, the saber captain, fenced well throughout the competition. Sophomore saberist Juan Guzman had an especially strong performance against UMass.
The most notable individual effort, however, belonged to Shapiro, as his hard-fought saber victory against UMass gave the Jumbos the edge.
At the Feb. 3 exhibition, also held at Tufts, the men's team faced off against NYU, a premier varsity team. The heavily favored Violets won the epee and saber weapons, but Tufts won the foil contest.
The NYU team stopped at Tufts on its way to another event, and offered a more relaxed competition environment for the Jumbos.
"NYU was a really fun match," Werth said. "Hopefully we can do it every year. It was a really nice atmosphere."
The men's club team will be participating in the New England Championships at Wellesley College over President's Day Weekend.
