A 13-hour bus ride to the MIT Invitational in Cambridge, Mass. took some life out of the fencing teams this weekend, but not enough to keep the women's squad from emerging from Sunday's competition with a 4-2 mark.
Despite the long haul up north, an intensely political day with officials and having to combine the foil and saber groups onto one strip, the Blue Devil women topped Brandeis, Boston College, Brown and Tufts while only falling to MIT and Harvard.
"I think we don't feel as good about this competition," said junior Kimi Schafer, whose epee squad went 5-1 on the afternoon. "Not record-wise at all, but because all of the bad things on the weekend were kind of circumstantial."
The men, who shared the travel woes of the women's team, faltered a bit more, going 2-3 on the day. Wins over MIT and Brown stood out over close losses to Brandeis, BC and Harvard in which the Blue Devils wasted a strong effort by the epee squad.
"It went pretty well," said senior Ben Cohen, who put together a 9-6 mark with the saber group. "We built on what we got going last weekend against Penn State. We've been getting better every week."
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