It was a bittersweet Saturday for the Blue Devils fencers in their regular-season finale.
Duke hosted its Annual Meet at Card Gym Saturday, welcoming Northwestern, John Hopkins and North Carolina to Durham. The men's squad picked up a pair of victories and the women's side suffered two setbacks.
“Today it was tough for the men and the women,” head coach Alex Beguinet said. “But in two weeks, we are going to compete against UNC, Notre Dame and Boston College for the ACC [title]. So the meet was a good warmup for the team.”
The men’s squad—ranked No. 9 in the country—took down Johns Hopkins 17-10 and cross-town rival North Carolina, 20-7.
The saber squad registered two narrowed 5-4 wins. Sophomore Christopher Monti—who earned All-Star honors last year—posted an individual 3-3 ledger against the Blue Jays and the Tar Heels, bringing the Chicago native's season record to 28-5. Freshman Peter Yang also went 3-3 in his bouts, and senior Colin Colter wrapped up the competition with a 4-2 performance.
Although the foil squad had to wait until the final bout to defeat Johns Hopkins 5-4, they had no trouble taking down the Tar Heels 8-1. Senior Rod Shayesteh and sophomore Joseph Lam combined to go 10-1 and sophomore Ethan Yu finished 3-3.
“As a team, we were able to come together at the end,” Shayesteh said. “Johns Hopkins has a couple of fencers in their foil squad who are nationally ranked and it was our first match of the day. With UNC we really pulled it together and were able to fence like we normally do.”
It was the epée squad who stole the spotlight routing both the Blue Jays and Tar Heels by 7-2 margins. Freshmen Bobak Shadpoor posted a 6-0 individual ledger to lead the way, senior Edward Chen went 5-1 and freshman Dean Ischiropoulus finished 4-2.
“I’m very pleased with the epée squad,” Beguinet said. “We changed their lineup and they had a better and stronger performance than in the past.”
In contrast, the women’s squad suffered two heart-breaking defeats. The Blue Devils fell 20-7 to the No. 7 Wildcats and dropped a 16-11 contest to the Tar Heels.
The saber squad, consisting entirely of freshmen, showed growing pains Saturday, as Duke lost to the Wildcats 5-4 and the Tar Heels 7-2. Haley Fisher and Jennifer Ling had 3-3 performances each, while Natalie Moszczynski totaled 0-4 and Alexandra Viqueira had two losses.
The epée squad went 12-6 in its matchups, with senior Collins leading the squad with a 3-3 performance. Junior Isabella Barna posted a 2-4 ledger, and sophomore Rita Somogyi finished 1-5.
“We worked very hard to put on this event,” Collins said. “But with this pressure, we just got carried away mentally and we forgot where we were a little bit. Some days you do great, some days you just don’t have a good day and today it wasn’t one of our greatest days.”
The foil squad earned Duke’s only win on the women's side Saturday. Against the Tar Heels, sophomore Julia Lee, junior Samantha Lee, and senior Libby Malcolm came back from a 2-4 deficit and pulled out a narrow victory.
Sixteen freshmen participated the Annual Meet for the first time, but Saturday's contest was the last home meet for five seniors.
“I’m going to miss the home meet,” Shayesteh said. “Everything is perfect and the way the gym is set up makes you feel really proud to be a fencer here. I’ll definitely come back as an alum.”
The Blue Devils will return to competition for the ACC Championships Feb. 21-22 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
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