There's more than a touch of optimism surrounding both the men's and women's fencing teams following the New England Fall Collegiate preseason tournament on Saturday, where the teams jump-started the season by placing 17 of the 30 Judges into the top ten of their respective events. The tournament featured fencers from many of New England's top teams, including Tufts, Boston College and Smith College, the tournament's host. The Judges' strongest showing was in the women's foil event, where five Brandeis fencers finished in the top ten. Stefanie Aucoin '08 defeated Jess Davis-Heim '09 15-12 in an all-Brandeis final, while Hannah Rosen '08, Tess Woehrlen '09 and Jessica Newhall '09 also had strong performances, finishing fifth, sixth and ninth respectively.

"Women's foil was probably the highlight of the day for us," coach Bill Shipman said. "Everybody did well."

In men's saber, captain Jeremy Simpson '06 took home the title with a 15-12 victory over Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman Igor Kopylov. Other strong performances included Isaac Lieberman '07 in sixth, Brendan Doris-Pierce '07 in ninth, and Jim Kahler '07 in 10th.

"[Simpson] got injured in the middle of the season last year, which was disappointing, so we're happy that he's off to a good start in his senior year," Shipman said.

In men's foil, rookies Will Friedman '09 and J.D. Carroll '09 led the Judges, finishing second and third respectively. The men's épée featured strong performances from Mike Still '08 in fifth, Noah Rosenheck '09 in eighth and Damien Lehfeldt '09 in ninth.

On the women's side, rookies Caitlin Kozel '09 and Kirsten Heinz '09 both had strong tournaments, finishing third in épée and saber, respectively.

Doris-Pierce said he was impressed with the strong performances of the rookies.

"Seeing the freshmen step up the way they did excited some of the upperclassmen," he said. "I was actually inspired by the way some of the underclassmen fenced yesterday. You can see a spark in the upperclassmen."

Women's team captain Deb Model '06 agreed.

"There are a lot of freshmen who are strong individual fencers and I think this will bring a very positive aspect to the season," she said.

Shipman said the new players give both teams the depth they did not have in past years.

Doris-Pierce also said he was impressed with the camaraderie and togetherness of both teams.

"There's a gigantic amount of mutual respect on this team," he said.

The tournament structure was different from any other the Judges will play this season, as it was an individual-based competition. Each event had eight finalists and awarded medals to the top three fencers.

Although the men's squad will lose Lieberman when he goes to study abroad in January, Kai Keller '07, the team's only representative at the NCAA Championships last year, will then return from his semester abroad, bringing more talent to the already optimistic team.

Model said that she expects big things from both squads.

"We're going to do pretty well this year," she said. "[This tournament] got a lot of people excited and pumped for the rest of the season."

The Judges have their next meet on Nov, 19 at the Northeast Conference meet in Providence.