The women's fencing team squared off against six schools on Friday in Providence, Rhode Island as part of the New England Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association's (NEWIFA) first conference meet. By the end of the day, it was a test of endurance as much as skill.
"I won a bunch; I lost a bunch," freshman foilist Meredith Paul said. "It was a long day."
The Jumbos were helped by a number of veteran teammates who returned from semesters abroad, including at least one junior for each weapon with junior epee captain Becca Hughes, junior sabre captain Alex Cheetham and junior foilist Naomi Bryant rejoining their respective squads.
"I did pretty well," Hughes said of her first competition after returning from South Africa. "The goal was to have a good time and enjoy ourselves. It was pretty tiring being there all day, but I hadn't competed since the end of last season, and I was thrilled with my results and the results of everybody."
Hughes' epee squad went 5-1 on the day, registering wins against Brown and Brandeis, the only two teams in the Saturday competition to have earned votes in the national poll.
"I feel like we all did better than expected," Hughes said. "Most teams were really competitive, strong programs. Beating Brown was a huge deal, and beating MIT [was] also. We beat one after the other, so we were genuinely confident. Dartmouth we weren't concerned with, and then beating Brandeis was great too. Epee was great. We kept each other focused, and once we started winning, we wanted to keep up that momentum."
The only match epee lost came in a narrow 5-4 decision against Vassar.
"It was unprecedented," Vassar coach Bruce Gillman said. "Last year was the first time we'd beaten Tufts that I know about, and for years before that Tufts had beaten us pretty well. For the first two years I was here, Tufts rolled over us nicely. Last year we just squeaked out a win, but this year more than a squeak. All three squads won, and considering we went 2-4 on the day, that was our most interesting result."
The foil squad also fell 5-4 against Vassar, while sabre was defeated 7-2 in the weapon that Gillman calls his team's strongest. But the epee coups against Brown and Brandeis more than offset the loss to Vassar for the Jumbos.
"Our expectations for the day weren't that high," sophomore epeeist Georgia Ranes said. "We went out there wanting to have fun, and we were convinced we'd get beaten by Brown and Brandeis. Then we beat Brown so our spirits were up, and when we lost to Vassar, it was no big deal; We killed Brandeis, too. Every bout was like 5-1.
"With Brown, it especially feels good because they're one of our biggest rivals," Ranes continued. "We don't get along with their team. There are bad feelings. The thing with Brandeis was that they didn't put their starters against us, and that was their biggest mistake."
The epee squad featured Hughes, Ranes, freshman Michaela Paulson and sophomore Coryn Wolk, who was singled out by Gillbride as one of the stronger fencers on the squad. Still, each of the epeeists was happy with one another's performances.
"I was pretty impressed with [Ranes]," Hughes said. "She did a really good job, staying confident and focused, and that's commendable. You can get stressed out, but she did a really good job of re-evaluating the circumstances when she wasn't winning and stayed confident."
Ranes, in turn, heaped praise on Wolk and Paulson.
"[Wolk] is great in competitions. In these types of meets, one of us will do well against one girl, and we all have different styles. Michaela Paulson was an alternate, and she did great for her first tournament. She kept her head. I think she won most of the bouts we put her in."
Although the epeeists found success on the day, the Jumbos struggled in the team results. Brown and Vassar both picked up 17-10 wins over the Jumbos, while Brandeis came away with a resounding 21-6 thrashing.
Senior foil captain Christine Lee held her own, winning all three of her bouts against Brown. Lee was pleased with the rest of the foil crew's performance, though they mostly came away empty-handed. Paul also expressed satisfaction with the results.
"Foil did really well," Paul said. "We faced some strong fencers, and lost to people we should've lost to who had more skill and more training. Some schools have stronger teams than we do, but it was a learning result as a whole."
Tufts will fence the next two weekends, with two of three meets over that span coming at home. This weekend, NYU will come to Jackson Gym, and the second conference meet of the year will also be held at Tufts on Feb. 7. The Jumbos will have their hands full with the reputable NYU team, which received national votes in the Coaches' Poll, but the fencers look forward to the home challenge.
"Fencing at home is great because it's a sport not many people know about, and it's nice to have people come watch," Hughes said. It's not like a normal game. It's an actual event, so it's nice to fence in the gym we practice in. We're used to our floors and our equipment, and we get to sleep in our own beds."
