The Duke fencing team completed its longest road trip of the season this weekend, with the men compiling a 5-4 record and the women going 4-6 in competitions in State College, Penn., and South Bend, Ind.
The 10th-ranked men's team's showing was particularly impressive, coming home with more wins than losses despite facing four of the top five teams in the country.
"We competed against good teams, and we held our ground," head coach Alex Beguinet said. "I'm very proud."
The teams got off to a rough start Saturday at Penn State, where the men dropped two of their three matches and the women lost three of four. The Blue Devils, however, salvaged the weekend at Notre Dame Sunday as several fencers turned in strong performances.
"The team spirit was good again," Beguinet said. "We went against strong teams and never let down."
Duke was again led by their saber fencers. On the men's side, freshman Laughlin Stewart went an impressive 6-3 Sunday and junior John Cornwell backed him up with a 6-5 mark. Fellow sabers Michael DiMarco and Peter Truszkowski shared the spotlight Saturday, as each finished 5-4.
For the women, the return of junior All-American Ibtihaj Muhammad, who missed Saturday's matches with an illness, sparked the saber team to a 4-2 mark. Muhammad compiled a 14-3 record and fellow junior Allison Schafer went 9-6.
"The saber teams did very well again," Beguinet said. "It was better [Sunday] than Saturday, so no complaints about that."
The Blue Devils will now prepare for their lone home competition of the season in two weeks. In the meantime, Beguinet said he will try to keep his fencers sharp.
"[We're going to] keep training and competing among each other and keep doing what we've been doing," Beguinet said.
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