Last Wednesday, the men's and women's fencing teams traveled to Cambridge to compete in the season's last team fencing meet: the Beanpot Fencing Tournament hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The men showed impressive improvement, going 1-2, while the women ended a streak of successful team meets with a winless record of 0-3. The men's win came on a 16-11 defeat of the home team MIT. The Judges fell to Boston College 17-10 and lost 23-4 to Harvard University, which was undefeated for the tournament on both the men's and women's sides.

The last time the Brandeis and MIT men matched up, which was in November at the first Northeast Fencing Conference Meet, the Engineers took a close victory, 14-13.

The difference that led to Wednesday's Brandeis victory, according to team captain épée Alex Clos '10, was seen in the team's enthusiasm.

"We did far better than we had done previously this season," said Clos. "I think that all the squads were very psyched up before the tournament, seeing as this was our last school meet for the season, and so everyone gave 110-percent effort, and our win over MIT definitely showed that."

That increased enthusiasm came despite a midweek, exam-time meet that precluded the attendance of a number of fencers, including foil Sam Kapon '12 and saber Lucas Gelwarg '13.

Clos thought that the team performed well despite the academic roadblocks.

"Because it was in the middle of the week, and there were a lot of curricular things going on, some people couldn't be there and a lot of people were stressed," said Clos. "But nonetheless, we were able to fence very well.

The Brandeis women went winless, starting with a 14-13 loss to BC, in which each weapon was decided by a single bout. The women then lost to Harvard, 20-7, and to MIT, 18-9.

"Maybe if we pulled a few more bouts together we could have won," foil Vikky Nunley '13 said of BC. "I don't know about Harvard. That was the first time we've fenced them this season and they're a tough school."

Against difficult competition, Nunley was happy with the team.

"We fenced well, it's just that we fenced a lot of good schools," said Nunley. "But, we tried hard. It was a really tough. . [It was a] little group of good schools."

While their record on the day may not show it, saber Anna Hanley '11 was similarly content with the women fencers.

"The women fenced hard," she said. "We had a few injuries and a few people were sick. So, even though we lost, I think we actually put up a better fight than we have in the past."

In the school's last team meet of the year, the women's squad showed some signs of a long, taxing season in which they have competed hard and performed quite well, including undefeated victories at both NFC meets, and at the Eric Sollee Invitational at Brandeis in January.

Now that the season has come to a close for team competition, the Judges set their sights on the NCAA Regional Championships at Brown University on March 14, in which the individual regional qualifiers will compete for a bid to the NCAA championships at Harvard on March 28.