The men's and women's fencing teams' excursion into the cheering and chest-painting world of Ivy League competition at Harvard on Wednesday ended with tough losses for both teams. The Crimson defeated the men's team 23-4 and the women's team 24-3 in what was the last meet of the semester for both the men's and women's team. The men close out the semester with a record of 2-3 and the women end on a 1-4 note.Captain Jeremy Simpson '06 had the most impressive victory for the team in the men's saber category, defeating Crimson senior captain Dave Jakus. Captain Brendan Doris-Pierce '07, Eugene Vortsman '08 and Will Friedman '09 rounded out the four wins for the men's team.

Both teams felt that the rowdy home crowd at Harvard affected their performance in the meet.

"This is not something that you would see at a fencing meet ever, so I know it was very frustrating, because the fans were disturbing," captain Deb Model '06 said. "[Fencing] is almost like a quiet sport. Cheering is one thing, but it's another thing when you are screaming. In all the years I have been at Brandeis, I have never seen that happen. There were lots of guys cheering and screaming, and they were basically shirtless."

Doris-Pierce said that he was happy with the individual performances but not the overall performance.

"I thought we all fenced very well, considering we were the underdog," Doris-Pierce said. "I think the final score was a little under what we were expecting, but Harvard is one of the top five teams in the country, and their men's team is exceptionally good. However, I thought we could have come up with a couple more bouts."

"Harvard is a very good team," Simpson said. "They usually have multiple NCAA finalists. We tried our hardest and we definitely fenced our hearts out. They are an incredible team, and they can recruit from anywhere."

The women's team had reason to celebrate when Tuesday's Boston Herald featured three Brandeis foilists, Chantal Dewey '07, Stefanie Aucoin '08 and Hannah Rosen '08.

"All three of them are tough mentally in different ways," Coach Bill Shipman told the Herald. "Chantal is very determined, very aggressive and takes no quarter. Stefanie is very focused and concentrates in a much more strategic sort of defensive mode. Hannah knows her own game very well, so she has no doubt in her mind about what she's doing out there."

The teams face off against Wellesley College at home when they return to action on Jan. 27.

"I think we are going to schock some people next semester," Doris-Pierce said. "We're not quite fencing up to our potential yet, but I believe we'll get there by next semester.