Duke tops No. 4 Penn St., No. 7 Penn

Saturday wasn’t a great day to be a Pennsylvania fencing team facing the Blue Devils.

At the Penn State Duals in University Park, Pa., Duke’s men’s and women’s teams each went 4-1, pulling off a significant upsets over ranked foes from the Keystone State. The ninth-ranked men’s team upset No. 4 Penn State 16-11, while the women stunned No. 8 Penn 16-11.

“I am very, very proud of our team today,” head coach Alex Beguinet told GoDuke.com. “They are growing quickly into a strong team, learning to depend on and support each other. This is a special group of kids.”

In addition to the upset of Penn State, the men (8-2) swept all three weapons against Drew, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina, but fell to the seventh-ranked Quakers. The foil and epee teams, led by senior Dorian Cohen and junior Tristan Jones, respectively, each pulled out four wins on the day, while seven of Duke’s nine participants racked up double-digit individual wins. Senior Charles Keilin, who has not seen competitive action since his freshman year, pulled off an incredible upset of last year’s defending men’s saber champion Aleksander Ochoki.

The No. 9 women’s team (7-2) added wins over Temple, Drew and North Carolina to its impressive victory over Penn, though second-ranked Penn State handed the Blue Devils their second defeat of the season. The upset of the Quakers was a sweep by all three weapons, but the highlight was the shutout by the saber team, which won in all nine of the team’s matches as its leader, junior Becca Ward, went 14-1 on the day. All of the women posted individual winning records, with seven of those fencers garnering ten wins or more.

The Duke fencers will compete next on Feb. 6 at the Eric Solle Invitiational at M.I.T.