This weekend, a Duke athletic team will head to Chapel Hill for a duel.
And the Blue Devils will even bring their swords along for the fight.
That's right, it's the start of the season for the Duke fencing team, which will face its first competition of the year at the North Carolina Meet on Saturday. The Blue Devils will compete in dual meets against the host Tar Heels and six other teams, including Rutgers, Penn State and Johns Hopkins.
Senior captain Anthony Crupi will try to use his saber to lead Duke's men to a strong season this year. Crupi, who competed in the NCAA Nationals his freshman year, hails from a part of New Jersey which is a hotbed for fencing talent.
"He has really had a tremendous fencing career," freshman Mark Marotto said. "Most of us from New Jersey fenced together on the same club team, so we know each other."
Three types of weapons are used in men's collegiate fencing -- the foil, the epee and the saber. When using the foil, which is the most basic of the weapons, fencers may only strike their opponents with the tip of the sword and can only make contact on the upper torso. In epee competition, which is the slowest and most strategic form of fencing, athletes can strike their opponents anywhere on their body, but they must use the sword's tip to make contact. Fencers who compete with a saber can attack their opponents above the waist using a sweeping motion -- they are not confined to using the sword's tip.
"Each weapon is the same difficulty in its own right," Marotto said.
In a dual meet, a team uses three fencers at each position. Everyone competes against each member of the other team who is using the same weapon.
Crupi and junior Ian Keller, another New Jersey product, will be Duke's top saber competitors this season. Sophomores Fredrik Arneborn, Jeremy Kahn and Jonathan Stieber will lead the Blue Devils' epee battalion. And sophomores Gian Paolo Aroldi and Paul Palmeri will join Marotto at foil.
Duke is looking for a strong overall team effort this year. The Blue Devils' fencing program has traditionally been known for producing a few sparkling individual performers -- such as four-time All-America Matt Andreson.
"This team is a good team," head coach Alex Beguinet said. "It will be a good team in a way Duke has not been before. It will be good as a team, not just as individuals. We don't have anybody as exceptional as we've had in the past."
Duke's women's team will also make its debut this weekend. The women are even less experienced than their male Blue Devils counterparts at the collegiate level, but they should improve as the season progresses.
Freshman Jennifer Brockett, who was a high school and club star in -- you guessed it -- New Jersey, will lead the Blue Devils with her foil.
"Jennifer was already classified before she came to Duke," Beguinet said.
In women's fencing, only the foil and epee are used. The Blue Devils have almost nobody with experience with the epee, so freshman Michaela Glod will make the transition to the weapon this season.
"She already had some potential, and she has shown dedication in practice," Beguinet said. "She is doing great in her transition to epee."
Both the men's and women's team are excited about their prospects for the season.
"I think we're a well-spirited and devoted team with great coaches," Marotto said. "That's success in its own right."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.