It is not going to be Duke-Carolina in the traditional sense at the fencing dual meets Friday and Saturday.
� �For one, they will not be played in Cameron or the Dean Dome, but in Card Gym, and there will not be thousands of rabid, screaming fans. The Blue Devils will also be fencing against four other teams during the meet, instead of just the Tar Heels. And head coach Alex Beguinet seems intent on insisting that this is just another meet.
� �"I don't care and I think my players don't really care either," he said. "I try to treat UNC as just another team. I think we should beat them; it's not a big deal."
� �But while it might not be Duke-Carolina in the normal sense, it is still a rivalry.
� �"We're going to tear up Carolina," captain Kimberly Schafer said. "We already fenced them at Penn State and kicked their butts, which is very satisfying because they came in there all rowdy and we just kicked their butts."
� �Besides UNC, both the men's and women's teams will fence MIT, Johns Hopkins and Brandeis. The men will also face Ohio State, and the women will fence against Temple.
� �All of the teams are nationally prominent and send many fencers to Nationals each year, with Beguinet pointing out Ohio State's men and Temple's women as particularly impressive, and epee Nathan Bragg mentioning Johns Hopkins.
� �Coming off a string of important victories in dual meets last weekend at Notre Dame--the men went 5-1 and the women finished 4-2--the Blue Devils will look to continue their success at home, where they say their coach's efficiency in running the meet gives them an advantage. "Coach runs the competition better than any other competition," Schafer said. "Nothing ever runs behind, you know when you're going to fence; that makes the whole day a lot easier."
� �Of course, for a team that competes most of the time on the road--Duke only hosts one meet per season--being at home offers other advantages.
� �"It's better to play at home because you get a lot of fans," said Bragg, who leads Duke with a 30-3 record this season. "You get to have people cheer for you; I want to do well at home."
� �Other Blue Devil leaders include freshman epee Anne Kercsmar (25-7) and her classmate saber Ibtihaj Muhammad (27-6), who have gotten their careers off to impressive starts while helping lead the team to its own notable opening.
� �Beguinet says the team will look to build on its success and improve again this week, in the hopes of sending as many as eight fencers to Nationals, instead of the usual two or three.
� �"The spirit of the team was very good [last week] and I think everybody played well," Beguinet said. "This year we could have a lot more fencers at Nationals than we've ever had before."
� �Entering this weekend's tough meet, his team echoed his praises and his hopes.
� �"We've just got to step it up against the good teams," Bragg said. "Otherwise we're doing well."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.