Duke doesn’t get the chance to fence in front of a home crowd often—it happens once a year to be exact—but the Blue Devils made the most of their opportunity this weekend at the annual Duke Home Meet.
"This year, we beat [the Tar Heels] pretty solidly, so we were all really psyched about that," junior epee Eugene Chung said. " North Carolina is by far the most fun. We had two huge crowds. That kind of energy that we feel at the Duke Home Meet is not replicated anywhere else, so I'm sure the seniors really loved it as their last time."
"This week, especially [Saturday], we did a great job," Chung said. "Our sabre squad went 5-0, which is the squad I'm in. As a team we did well against Brandeis, we were a little overconfident which I think is why we fell."
"At this level, it's all mental," Collins said. "It's all where you're at, where your team's at, how you're focusing and it's hard to go to your first tournament and have that mental focus when you're there. So I think that as the weeks go on, as the tournaments go on, our team's getting more focused on what we're doing."
We've been beating them for the last couple years, which is awesome," Chung said. "This year I'm sure for the seniors, especially. Every year feels great to come out with a win."
"If everyone is here on the team, we hope that it takes only three-and-a-half hours," Collins said. "It's a very long process. It takes us two whole days to set up."
Once cleanup is finally finished and the fencers have the Duke Home Meet behind them, the underclassman will turn their attention to the Junior Olympics, slated for next weekend. The underclassman who do not qualify will join the upperclassman and take the weekend to rest and prepare for the following week's Temple Duals.
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