The men's and women's fencing teams sliced and diced through the competition at the Northeast Conference eet at Brown University on Saturday, as both teams came away with undefeated performances in their first regular season team tournaments.The men's team went 4-0, defeating the UMass Amherst 17-10, Tufts 19-8, Boston University 23-4 and the University of New Hampshire 20-7. The women were 6-0, winning 20-7 over Massachusetts, 16-11 over Tufts, 23-4 over Boston University, 18-9 over New Hampshire, 21-6 over Wellesley and 19-8 over Smith College.

The men's foil and saber teams won 92 out of 108 individual bouts on the day, while the men's épée team recovered from a tough bout against UMass to win 39 out of 54 individual bouts.

"Our saber was really strong, led by [Jeremy Simpson '06]," foilist J.D. Carroll '09 said. "Also, our foil was very strong. The épée team got off to a slow start, but after that they also performed very well."

Coach Bill Shipman attributed the slow start of the épée team, which is currently without star Kai Keller '07, who is abroad until next semester, to its youth and inexperience.

"This was the first team match for two of our épéeists, so that threw them off a bit," Shipman said.

The women's foil team built on its strong performance in the New England Fall Collegiate Tournament, winning 46 of 54 individual bouts. The épée team, which expanded from three members last year to five this year, was led by rookie Caitlin Kozel '09.

Shipman said he was optimistic about the young team.

"They're the least-experienced team, but they did well most of the time," he said.

Men's team captain Jeremy Simpson '06 acknowledged the low level of the competition, but said he was happy with the team's performance.

"We performed very well," he said. "It wasn't a very hard meet, but we all did well, and I don't think we lost many events at all."

The structure of the meet differed from the previous tournament at Smith College. Instead of each competition counting as an individual event, the Judges fought as a team. They competed in nine individual bouts each for épée, saber and foil against every team, and the final match score was based on which team won the most bouts.

Simpson said the format of the tournament was an important lesson for the rookies.

"We have a lot of new freshmen who are fencing for the first time in a college setting and a team setting, so they're getting used to how it works," he said. "Fencing on a team is totally different than fencing individually, which is what more people are used to."

Despite their inexperience, there is a lot of optimism surrounding the new fencers, such as Kozel and Carroll.

"Our freshmen this year are incredible," Simpson said. "A lot of the foilists and épéeists we have are really, really good, and some of them could be starters this year."

Coming off such a convincing victory, Shipman said that the rookies will need to continue to perform well for the Judges to get ready for the harder competition later in the season.

"The freshmen are going to be the key to the rest of the season," he said. "We're counting on them to fence well for us."

The next match for the teams is an invitational meet at home on Dec. 4.