From Brandeis University Athletics
This past weekend, the Brandeis University women's fencing team competed at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Championships at Vassar College and the U.S. Collegiate Squad Championships at Drew University.
The Judges' top performers were the women's epee squad of rookie Liz Feller (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. / Hendrick Hudson) and juniors Sonya Glickman (Valhalla, N.Y. / Valhalla), Gwendolyn Mowell (Wyckoff, N.J. / Indian Hills) and Rosa Zhang (E. Setauket, N.Y. / Ward-Melville). At the New England Championships, they had the team's best squad finish, placing second overall with 33 points, just one behind Sacred Heart University. Glickman led the way with 12 win in her 13 matches in the team portion of the event to win her pool. Mowell finished third in her pool, going 12-2, missing out on second place by one touch. Feller was 9-4 to place sixth in her pool, tying with two others on record but finishing third on indicators (+12). In the individual portion of the tournament, Mowell placed third and Feller sixth overall. Four of Feller's six defeats in the final portion were by 5-4 scores.
The next day in New Jersey, the epee squad turned in Brandeis's best-ever performance at the U.S. Squad Championships, placing second overall. Competing in Olympic-style relay matches to 45 points, the Judges rolled over Stevens Tech, in their opener, 45-27.
Facing the team from third-ranked Princeton University in the semifinals, the Judges pulled off a 43-42 upset. Brandeis opened strong, with Feller winning 5 of 6 touches from the Tigers' Audrey Abend. Princeton tied the bout at 14-14 over the course of the next two match-ups, but Feller out-touched Elizabeth Meyers, 6-2, to put the Judges back up, 20-16. Princeton's Abend went 9-5 against Glickman, again tying the match at 25-all. The next three matches all ran out of time - Mowell edged Isabel Ford, 3-1, but Meyers took Glickman, 4-2, tying the match at 30-all. Feller and Ford scored two touches each in the eighth round, bringing Mowell and Abend to the strip with the match tied at 32-all. The two fencers played it safe for three minutes, forcing overtime. Mowell scored the touch about 20 seconds in to earn the 33-32 victory.
In the finals, the Judges ran into eighth-ranked Pennsylvania. Only one matchup was decided by more than three points, in the fourth round, when the Quakers' Alejandra Trumble took 10 of 12 touches from Zhang. Penn hung on to take the 45-39 victory, despite Mowell taking eight touches from Stephanie Wolf in the final matchup.
For their efforts, the epee squad was selected as the University Athletic Association Women's Fencers of the Week.
The Brandeis women's team finished third overall at the New England Championships with 93 points, five behind Sacred Heart and eight behind MIT. Women's foil placed fourth overall on indicator – the Judges tied with MIT and Dartmouth with 24 wins, but Brandeis's +110 was well behind the Big Green (+122) and Engineers (+128). Women's sabre was fifth overall with 26 victories.
Individually, junior Caroline Mattos (Providence, R.I./Lasalle Acad.) had the women's program's best finish with a silver medal in the foil event. Mattos won her initial pool on indicator over Vassar's Kirsten Denman, although she dropped the head-to-head meeting. Denman went undefeated in the final pool to take gold, but Mattos against prevailed on indicator, going 3-2 with a +4 to edge to other 3-2 competitors. In the women's sabre individual competition, the Judges' top performer was sophomore Nina Sayles (Mamaroneck, N.Y. / Loomis-Chaffee), who finished eighth.
At the squad championships, the foil squad finished in fourth place, winning their quarterfinal over Stevens Tech, 45-36, but falling to Princeton, 45-27, in the semis and to Fairleigh Dickinson, 45-28, in the third-place match. Women's sabre also took third, demolishing their rivals from NYU, 45-9, in the first round, before falling to Penn in the second, 45-28, and getting edged by Sacred Heart, 45-42, for bronze.