The women's fencing team had its best outing of the season this weekend as it won three of its four dual matches in University Park, Pa., on Saturday. The men's squad also competed on Saturday, splitting its four matches.
The women defeated Haverford, Cleveland State and Stanford and lost to perennial power Penn State. The men lost to the host Nittany Lions and Stanford, but they managed to knock off Haverford and Cleveland State.
The foil team led the way for the Duke women, as freshman Sarah Hamilton fought her way to a 11-3 record for the day, and sophomores Ann Stewart and Jen Brockett each collected 10-4 marks. Overall, the foil fencers went 15-1 against Stanford to seal the Blue Devils' upset win over the Cardinal.
"The foil squad walked all over them," sophomore Mica Glod said.
Even a strong group of transfer students in epee couldn't overcome the efforts of Hamilton, Brockett and Stewart
"We felt like we held the team to enable us to beat Stanford," Brockett said. "We felt we had more experience with each other [than in last week's matches]."
The biggest highlight of the day came in the team's only loss. Stewart defeated defending NCAA champion Olga Kalinovskaya of Penn State by a 5-2 margin.
"It was a great bout despite the fact that we lost to Penn State," sophomore Mica Glod said. "I've seen Olga fence before, and she's a great fencer. But she was really being a snot [against Stewart] and not fencing hard. Ann really took advantage of that and kicked her butt."
Duke's foil fencers also faired well on Saturday. Junior Sarah Cairney went 9-6, and freshman Katherine Nichols fought her way to an 8-7 mark. Glod did not fence as well as she has earlier this season because she was hampered by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee and by tendonitis in her arm.
"The tendonitis makes my arm go dead at times when I am fencing," Glod said.
The men's team had a balanced effort from its foil and epee fencers. Freshman Bob Manchen and junior Paul Palmeri fenced well with the foil.
"We did really well against the easier teams and not as well against the good teams," captain Jeremy Kahn said. "The foil did really well at times, but on the whole, it was a pretty even weekend for our team."
The fencers head to Princeton, N.J., next weekend for dual matches against Princeton, New York University and St. John's.
"We feel ready for the upcoming matches against tougher teams," Brockett said.
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