The men’s and women’s fencing teams went a combined 8-3 at the first Northeast Fencing Conference meet of the season, paced by a dominant 26-1 victory over the University of New Hampshire by the men’s squad and a 25-2 win over University of Massachusetts Amherst by the women’s team.

Both teams squared off against five opponents at the meet—Boston University, UMass Amherst, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sacred Heart University and the University of New Hampshire—while the women also defeated Wellesley College. The men earned a 4-1 record while the women fought to a 4-2 record on the day.

The women’s squad topped UMass Amherst 25-2, Wellesley 19-8, UNH 18-9 and BU 19-8 but lost to Sacred Heart 15-12 and MIT 17-10. Ashley Jean ’17 helped pace the women’s sabre squad, winning 11 of her 16 bouts at the meet with a team-high indicator of +32.

The epeeists saw three competitors end the day with an indicator of above +1, as Liz Feller ’18 led the way with a +30 indicator, winning 12 of her 13 bouts. Gwendolyn Mowell ’16 and Shayna Lyandvert ’18 both turned in strong performances with +16 and +14 indicators, respectively. Mowell won seven of her 14 bouts, while Lyandvert was successful in six of her nine bouts.

“Overall we gave it our best; each squad fenced really well,” said Feller. 

“While we still have ways in which we can improve we worked well as a team, and although we did not win as many as we had hoped we still made great milestones.”

Caroline Mattos ’16 once again led the foilists, winning 12 of her 15 bouts for a +39 indicator. 

Chaya Schapiro ’17 ended the day with a +13 indicator, winning four of her five bouts at the meet.

The men’s team turned in a pair of dominating victories en route to a 4-1 record, defeating UNH 26-1 and sweeping BU 27-0. 

The men also defeated Sacred Heart 15-12 and topped UMass Amherst by a score of 20-7 but were denied a perfect weekend by a 14-13 loss to MIT. 

“I was pleased with my result but know I can do better,” Lyandvert said. “Individually, I'm working on my speed and making my moves smaller.  As the first competition of the season, it was a warm up and nice first start to the season.”

Foilist Ethan Levy ’15 led the way for the Judges with a +39 indicator, winning 10 of his 13 bouts on the afternoon. The foil squad saw all four members who competed win at least 75 percent of their bouts and score at least +15 on the indicator. Guillermo Navarez ’18 followed Levy with a +35 indicator after winning 12 of his 13 bouts, while the duo of Toby Gray ’16 and Len Grazin ’17 had +17 and +16 indicators, respectively. 

Kyle Berney ’18 led the saberists and was one of four Judges to end the day with an indicator above +10. Berney went 11-3 on the day with a +28 indicator, followed by Jess Ochs-Willard ’15, whose 9-3 record gave him a +19 indicator. 

Eric Shen ’16 had a +10 indicator with a 6-2 record while Curtis Wilson ’18 won five of his six bouts at the meet for a +17 indicator. 

“I am very proud of our team and I know we tried our best,” said Lyandvert. “We definitely have things to work on individually and as a team and as we keep improving, we'll keep doing better.  

This was my first team college fencing meet and I was impressed with the comradery of the team.  I know as a whole we are super pumped for our home invitational.”

Lyandvert explained that the team has a number of technical skills to work on in practice before they return to action.

“The team is aware of what we need to work on,” explained Lyandvert. “As a whole, improving our speed and making our moves smaller will help with unpredictability and accuracy.  Coach [Bill Shipman] is also teaching us different strategies through drills that make our fencing better.”

Feller echoed her teammate's focus on training before the host meet,

“Everyone on the team has their strengths and weaknesses but we are working to maximize ... the strengths ... and keep our level of competitiveness rising throughout the season,” remarked Feller.

Both squads return to action with the Brandeis Invitational on Dec. 7, beginning at 9 a.m. 

—Editor's note: Guillermo Navarez ’18 is an editorial assistant for the Justice photos section.