The Brandeis fencing team traveled to Colorado on Saturday to compete in the Western Invitational hosted by the United States Air Force Academy. The men and women tallied five wins out of the combined 11 matches that they took part in.

The men got a close win against Air Force, 14-13, and defeated  the California Institute of Technology  by a wide margin, 24-3. 

The women also defeated Air Force in a close match, 14-13, and Caltech by a larger margin, 23-4, while also adding a 14-13 victory against Stanford University. 

The team’s losses came against Stanford for the men, 19-8, and Northwestern University for the women, 22-5, while both the men and the women were swept by Duke University and the University of California, San Diego. The men fell to Duke 15-10 and UC San Diego 14-13, while the women dropped identical 18-9 decisions to both schools

The teams combined to go 5-6 on the day, and saberist Kyle Berney ’18 managed to take away some positives from the competition. 

“Beating Air Force was definitely a highlight of the day, especially on their turf. We also got to see some squads from other schools who we don’t usually fence, which was a good learning experience,” he said. 

In the win against Air Force, the men were defeated 2-7 in epee but got 6-3 wins from both saber and foil to come away with the victory. Saberist Adam Mandel ’15 led the way with three wins for the team, and fellow saberist Jess Ochs-Willard ’15 added two wins in the match. Epeeist Tom Hearne ’16 notched two wins for the men, while foilists Guillermo Narvaez ’18 and Noah Berman ’15 also got two wins in the match. 

In the men’s win against Caltech, the team won handily in three events saber, foil and epee, winning 9-0, 8-1 and 7-2, respectively.

When talking about his more experienced teammates, Berney spoke of them as invaluable in his development as a fencer. 

“I’m just trying to soak up as much as possible, both on [the] strip and the leadership aspect off of it,” he said. “The seniors are all excellent role models and I’m really glad both my squad mates [Mandel and Ochs-Willard] are such excellent fencers and leaders. The upperclassmen as a whole are all very experienced and helpful to talk to when I’m having problems with nerves.”

In the women’s match against Air Force, the team earned a 5-4 win in saber and a 7-2 win in epee, which was enough to put the women over the top. The team was led by epeeist Sonya Glickman ’16, who earned three wins for the team, while the saberists were led by Laura Broffman ’18 and Deborah Abiri ’16 with two wins each. 

In the women’s win against Caltech, the team won 8-1 in saber and epee, and 7-2 in foil. 

Foilist Caroline Mattos ’16 was a standout for the women’s team, going 12-2 on the day, while Mandel led the way for the men’s side with an 11-2 record.

The team’s next competition will be in Providence, R.I. on Saturday when they will travel to Brown University to participate in their second Northeast Conference Meet of the season.

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