The women's fencing team took sixth place at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships in a pool of 14 teams at Vassar College on Saturday.
As opposed to normal conference play, in which the starters all fence against one another in a round robin style, at the NEIFC Championships, fencers were matched up according to individual ranking during the tournament's first round, consisting of team play.
Under this new scoring system, Tufts' saber and epee squads placed third and fourth place, respectively, in squad rankings. The saber squad finished with 29 wins and 9 defeats, with 170 touches scored and only 96 touches received. That equated to an indicator score of plus−74, a mark surpassed only by Boston College and MIT, who tied for first.
Close behind, the epee squad finished 26−12 and earned a final indicator score of plus−51, which was fourth place among all participating epee squads.
The foil team, which has been transitioning from the loss of several key members midway through the season, placed 12th in the final team standings.
Following the first round of championship play, the three squads had a cumulative victory−defeat score of 65−50, touch scores of 416−369 and a plus−47 indicator score good for 6th place as a team.
"It was a great way to end the season on kind of a high note," sophomore epee captain Laurel Hutchison said. "Everyone was there at the tournament. Everyone was supportive of one another, and we had a lot of family support."
The second half of the tournament featured individual−focused play, with the top six A's, top four B's and top two C's overall from each weapon advancing for a total of 12 fencers per weapon category in round−robin pool play. Tufts sent five team members into the individual rounds. From the epee squad, all three starters were selected to move on — Hutchison, junior Abigail Hepworth and freshman Katharine Lynch.
"I was excited that all three of our starting epees made it to the individual rounds. We have a stronger squad than we've had in the past," Hutchison said. "We're also really proud of [Lynch]. She came in this year as our first drop−in and has continued to perform really well. She made it to the individuals yesterday and was kicking butt."
Joining Hutchison and the epee starters from the sabre squad were senior captain Sarah Danly and senior Brianna Smith. Sophomore sabre captain Julia Hisey narrowly missed the cutoff, placing seventh among the A−strip. She was tied with Brandeis sabre Zoe Messinger with an 8−5 record, and the tiebreaker came down to touch indicator, with the advantage going to Messinger.
"She was off by one touch. ... If she had gotten two more points [against] anyone all day she would have made it," Danly said. "We're expecting her to do really well at regionals. This is also the strongest [the sabre] squad has ever been."
The foil squad fared well despite the departure of half its fencers nearly a month ago and the relative youth and inexperience of the remaining members. Freshman Anjali Shankar had a strong performance, placing eighth in her division in her first varsity−level start.
"She held her own really well, so I'm very proud of her," junior Kelly Manser said. "The foilists have stepped up and they've improved, and I'm looking forward to doing even better next year. We're not necessarily getting the wins right away, [but] we're setting the groundwork for future years, and we're not letting that get us down."
"As a team I think we did really well. I'm really proud of how we did," Danly said.
With the conference championships complete, the team is looking forward to a bit of rest and then preparation for the upcoming NCAA Regionals, which will be hosted by Boston College on March 9.
Tufts will put its support behind its seven qualifying players, who earned bids to the tournament based on the number of bouts and percentage of victories.
All three epee starters — Hutchison, Hepworth and Lynch — and tournament sabre starters Hisey, Danly and Smith will join freshman sabre Sarah Innes−Gold on the regional stage.
