The Judges got off to a successful start this season at the New England Fall Collegiate Championship, or “the Big One,” at Smith College on Saturday. The fencers took home three medals between the men and women in their first competition of the season.  On the women’s side, Caroline Mattos ’16 utterly dominated her competition. In pool play, she only surrendered two touches in six bouts, propelling her to the top seed in the direct elimination round. In that round, she defeated her three opponents by a total combined score of 45-9. 

The only test came in the finals from Sacred Heart University’s  Junior CJ McCarter, but Mattos was undeterred, triumphing by a score of 12-10, and brought home the gold in women’s foil for the second time in her career at this event. 

Mattos succeeded despite fighting through injuries. She commented, “So far this season, I’ve sprained my ankle, strained my quads and have had continuous back problems. I  recently got over a virus that still leaves me constantly fatigued. I hate sitting on the sidelines, so I’ve just been working through my injuries as best as I can.”

Zimeng “Boots” Xue ’18 finished fifth in the foil event, also dominated her opponents by a score of 30-5 in pool play.

 Xue eventually lost to the silver medalist McCarter in the quarterfinals, but it was an admirable finish for the sophomore nonetheless. Ashley Jean ’17 mirrored Xue’s performance in the sabre event, also finishing fifth after losing to the eventual champion in the quarterfinals. Jean defeated teammate Nina Sayles ’17 by a score of 15-10 in the round of 16 after winning her first elimination match by a score of 15-2. 

Mattos was impressed with the team’s results. She remarked, “It’s always nice to win, but I think this reassures me that I am still capable of competing at a certain level. I’m always looking to improve, and this tournament definitely helped me gauge  where I’m at and where I want to be by the end of the season. Overall, we have a strong freshmen class. I was impressed by everyone’s performance as a whole. They all exceeded my expectations, and I’m extremely  proud of them.”

On the men’s side, Kyle Berney ’18 and Elisha Litle ’18 accounted for the other two medals. Berney earned a silver medal in sabre, medaling for the second time in a row at this event. His only loss came to Benjamin Lin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament last spring. Otherwise, no other opponent in elimination play came within five touches of him. Litle took silver in foil, defeating Brandeis teammate Charles Wells ’19 in the round of 16. He managed to defeat the top seed from Boston College but eventually lost to Sacred Heart in the final.  

Many Judges met in the elimination rounds of the men’s epee event, but it was Philip Szeszol ’19 who had the best finish, reaching the quarterfinals. 

For the goals of the season, Matos noted that “it would be an honor to represent Brandeis at NCAAs this year. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience which I would love to be part of.  I  see qualifying as a reward to myself after working hard for the past three years.”The Judges return to action on Nov. 21 in the Northeast Fencing Conference in their meet at Brown University in Rhode Island.