The men's and women's fencing teams got off to a slow start this weekend, beginning their season a combined 1-9 at the UNC Invitational in Chapel Hill.
The competition featured some tough competition, including defending national champion Penn State.
"On average, the teams we faced were of a really high caliber," junior foil David Bright said. "Given the caliber we fenced, we fenced all right.
"We were a little bit disappointed, but overall, most of us fenced pretty well. We're not happy, but the weekend was not a complete disaster."
The women's team came away with the weekend's lone victory when it defeated Johns Hopkins 17-10. The Blue Devils were coming off a 14-13 loss to a talented Northwestern squad before facing less-talented Johns Hopkins.
"We did really well against Northwestern and we fenced very intensely," sophomore Kristina Shafer said. "We wanted to fence at the same level against Johns Hopkins. We kept up that level and fenced really well."
The Blue Devil women finished the weekend 1-5, barely losing to NYU 14-13 and dropping an 18-9 decision to Rutgers. Duke also lost lopsided matches to national powers Penn State and Princeton.
The women were led by Nyasha London, who finished the weekend with a 13-5 record. London, only a sophomore, was actually one of Duke's oldest competitors. The Blue Devils are undergoing some serious rebuilding and feature mostly freshmen and sophomores.
In fact, at the Invitational, the oldest fencers competing in their regular weapons were two sophomores. Duke brought one junior, but Judith Jacobson was competing in the epee instead of her usual foil. The sabre unit, meanwhile, was composed entirely of freshmen.
"We have a real young team," Shafer said. "The was the first time a lot of people had seen competition like this.... We have a lot of potential.... We were mentally there the whole day, which bodes well for the future."
The men's team went 0-4 on the weekend. But other than a 23-4 loss to Penn State, the other three defeats were determined by seven points or less, including a 14-13 loss to NYU. That bout came down to sophomore foil Carlo Bertucci, who lost 5-4.
"We're more or less experienced with a lot of veterans, so we'll be OK," Bright said. "The squad performance was key this weekend. Foil and sabre looked good and will do well. The epee team started a little slow but will finish strong, I think."
Both teams have a while to build from this experience and do not return to action until the Penn Invitational Jan. 22.
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