For the Blue Devil seniors on the fencing team, this weekend's Duke Invitational tournament held in Card Gym was an excellent way to finish their regular-season collegiate careers.
The Duke men defeated all five of their opponents: Air Force, Brandeis, MIT, North Carolina and Ohio State. The women also had a successful day, besting all but the Tar Heels and the Buckeyes.
The men's team, however, did not cruise to easy victories. At the end of the day, their sweep of all five teams was contingent upon winning their last two bouts against MIT-the first by sophomore foil fencer Carlo Bertucci and the last by junior foil fencer Davy Bright.
"I didn't even know that the entire match was that close," Bertucci said. "I knew that I had to hit him, and that's pretty much it."
Bertucci successfully scored five hits on his opponent, winning the bout and leaving the fate of the match in Bright's capable hands.
"I was nervous, and I was also confident," team captain and senior saber fencer Mike Baughman said. "I knew that
Bright only allowed his opponent one touch and convincingly won the bout and finished the Blue Devil sweep.
Bertucci and Bright were not the only stars of the Duke fencing squad that day, however. Andy Mahen, sophomore saber fencer, had an incredible day, defeating some tough opponents.
"Andy stood out, as always. He was fencing very consistently," Baughman said.
Two of the three men's fencing squads, the foil and saber squads, scored more bout victories than any of the other five teams at the tournament. The saber fencers scored 35 victories while dropping only 10 bouts, and the foil team won 34 of its 45 bouts.
The women's team, in its first season fielding a saber squad, did exceptionally well against much more experienced opponents. Over half of the entire women's team are freshmen, making experience an issue in some of the bouts.
"I was very impressed with our women's saber team. None of them had any saber fencing experience before this year," junior epee Judith Jacobson said. "They were totally new and they were wonderful."
Senior captain and epee fencer Katarine Von Egressy provided much-needed support for the women's team and helped drive the women's foil squad to be the tournament's best.
The team as a whole improved over previous meets-largely by virtue of the experience the team had gained from prior meets.
"I was very impressed with the team," Jacobson said. "Our team is very young, over half of the team was freshmen. They were able to handle all of the pressure very well."
Like the men, the women's team also finished its day in grand tradition over MIT. The contest came down to the last two foil bouts, one of which Duke had to win to clinch the victory.
Despite the fact that the most-experienced foil fencer, Nyasha London, was a sophomore, the team showed exceptional poise and dispatched its opponents to secure the team's third and final victory of the day.
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