Fencing, perhaps more than most sports, is defined by inches. One tough break here or there can often be enough to decide a bout. The women's fencing team learned this the hard way this weekend, dropping three close matches to NYU, Wellesley and Sacred Heart. Due to strong individual performances, however, at least five Jumbos are on the brink of qualifying for the March 11 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.
"At this point we have a number of girls who can qualify," head coach Ariana Klinkov said. "I think we're going to have a big presence at Regionals, which hasn't happened before. I'm really excited about it."
According to Klinkov, most of the epee squad starters — a group that includes senior quad-captains Georgia Ranes and Coryn Wolk and sophomore Abigail Hepworth — are likely to qualify for the regional tournament.
Klinkov also expressed hope that two of the team's sabre fencers, junior Sarah Danly and freshman Julia Hisey, would have the opportunity to represent Tufts at the regional competition as well.
The women's fencing team last season sent four Jumbos to compete at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, including Danly and Hepworth, two returners to this year's squad. Danly, the highest-seeded Jumbo in the regional competition last season, ranked 35th out of 49 in the sabre competition. This season, after missing a portion of the season, she will need to qualify for the regional competition in the last two weeks of the season.
"Sarah is just coming back from studying abroad, so she doesn't have enough bout points yet," Klinkov said. "But if she keeps performing the way she's been performing, she has a good chance to qualify. I'm really looking forward to Regionals to see how people do."
Despite individual successes, Tufts failed to win a meet over the weekend. The three-match slate ended with a loss to Sacred Heart on Sunday afternoon at the final Northeast Fencing Conference, hosted by Wellesley College. The Pioneers outlasted the Jumbos 14-13 in a highly contested match.
Still, there was something positive to be taken from the meet for the Jumbos as their foil squad won its first bout of the weekend. The squad's effort was spearheaded by freshman Laurel Hutchison, who switched from épée to foil for the meet.
Earlier on Sunday, Tufts fell to host Wellesley, 17-10. Despite winning the sabre competition 6-3, Wellesley's épée and foil squads prevailed, winning both competitions by scores of 6-3 and 8-1, respectively.
Wellesley had defeated Tufts twice previously this season, edging out the Jumbos 14-13 at the Nov. 21 Tufts Invitational at MIT and again at the Wellesley Invitational, in a 19-8 rout in January. The Blue improved to 22-4 on the season with the victory.
The Jumbos' weekend began at home on Saturday, with a nail-biting 14-13 defeat by NYU. The Jumbos won both the sabre (6-3) and the epee events (6-3) but fell in the foil competition, 8-1, ultimately costing them the match.
Though the final results may have been disappointing, the Jumbos still thought the weekend was productive in terms of building team unity.
"I think the meets went pretty well," Wolk said. "The team did a really good job of supporting each other. Ariana and [assistant coach] Mike Eskin have been really encouraging team spirit and rooting for each other, and I think that has made a difference."
Klinkov echoed the optimism.
"The losses to NYU and Sacred Heart were both exciting matches that could've gone either way," Klinkov said. "I thought these were actually quite good results. Our foil team is extremely young and inexperienced, and they managed to win one bout [against Sacred Heart]."
With just two meets left before the regional tournament — a quad-meet at Stevens Tech on Sunday and the final conference meet on Feb. 27 at Mount Holyoke — the Jumbos are hoping to finish the season on a high note.
"The meets we have left in the season are ones I think we can do extremely well at," Klinkov said.
Having faced these teams before could prove advantageous, Klinkov added.
"We'll be fencing against teams within our conference that we've already encountered a few times, and I think that with more experience we'll perform better and better against these teams," she said.
