The men's fencing team found themselves in a bind on Saturday afternoon during the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C.

The Judges led the host Blue Devils, needing just two victories from the sabre squad to clinch the match over the 10th ranked team in the nation. However, Brandeis was reeling, dropping four straight decisions to see their 12-5 lead dwindle down to 12-9.

Captain Julian Cardillo '14, who finished with an impressive 15-0 record in his foil bouts on the day, maintained that he had the utmost confidence in his team's ability to beat Duke University.

"We've known all along we could take them down," he said. "This wasn't going to be one I was going to let go, and I knew it was going to be hard but this is one we had to do.

"[At 12-9] our entire men's and women's team was watching, but at that point you see the lead diminished. The sabre guys talked among themselves and did what they needed to do, which was take it one fencer at a time and pick up wins, since two wins out of nine was manageable."

The Judges got those two wins, and one more, from Adam Mandel '15 and Jess Ochs-Willard '15 to defeat the Blue Devils 15-12 and cap a perfect day at the meet.

It was the Judges' first win over Duke since the team secured a 16-11 victory in February 2006.

The men went 5-0 on the day, adding wins over Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States Air Force Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the win over the Blue Devils.

The women's squad also had a strong tournament but did not enjoy the same overall success as the men enjoyed, posting a 2-3 record over the course of the weekend.

The women's day began slowly against No. 8 Temple University, dropping the first meet of the day 24-8 to the Owls before defeating Air Force 15-12 and MIT 14-13 prior to the lunch break.

The Judges, sitting at 2-1 at the beginning of the afternoon session, could not keep up with Duke and UNC, dropping an 18-9 match to Duke and a 17-10 match to UNC.

Cardillo stressed the high caliber of completion both teams faced during the meet.

"We're one of the only teams to have that opportunity to face Division I opponents," he said.

Although the women only managed a pair of wins for the tournament, their 2-3 record matched UNC for the weekend and outpaced MIT.

Caroline Mattos '16 led the way for the women with an overall record of 13-2 in her foil bouts.

The men's squad, however, was nearly flawless en route to the 5-0 record on the day.

The team began the day with an 18-9 win over Johns Hopkins, encompassing identical 6-3 records for all three weapons-?(c)p?(c)e, foil and sabre.

A pair of 17-10 wins against UNC and Air Force, respectively, set the scene for a lunch break-and a matchup with arguably the hottest fencing squad in the country. Duke defeated then 10th ranked Stanford and then fourth ranked University of Notre Dame the previous weekend.

Following the win over Duke, the men capped their 5-0 day with a 16-11 victory over MIT, and Cardillo could not have been happier with the results of the day.

"I'm very satisfied," Cardillo said. "It's the first time this season we've swept a meet and gone undefeated.

The [guys] were consistent all day long and the foil team absolutely dominated [today]."

Cardillo mentioned that the team singled out the Duke meets as a must-win matchup to take home after all was said and done.

"We've come so close [to defeating Duke] my four years and every year we circle that meet because that's the top team," he said.

"Of the four years, this is the strongest team Duke has had, so we needed all three [of our] teams to be their strongest [as well]."

The initial lead against Duke came in part due to the efforts of Tom Hearne '16 who picked up two of his weapon's four wins in the ?(c)p?(c)e bouts against the Blue Devils.

Even with the lead at 12-9, the team still required the wins by Mandel and Ochs-Willard to clinch the victory. Mandel swung momentum back in the Judges' favor to push the Judges to within one point of winning. Ochs-Willard then clinched the win with a 5-3 victory to seal the match.

Mandel added a victory in his final bout for the good measure of a 15-12 overall win.

Cardillo stressed the importance of having Ochs-Willard and Mandel to close out the victory, additionally noting that the extra point of breathing room went a long way.

"Having them to close out is huge," he said. "Adam was in a position to increase the lead from 14-12 to 15-12 which is great because you want some breathing room. He wiped the floor with them. The fact of the matter is we had a cushion at the end of the day."

Both squads return to action tomorrow in the Beanpot Tournament, hosted by MIT, and Cardillo thinks the team is improving at just the right time of year.

"I'm a firm believer that this team always fences well but we heat up in February and March," he said.

"We're all smiles now but the season is winding down but we have our goals and we are going to use this meet as a booster to finish strong. We're fencing Harvard [University at the Beanpot Tournament] and that will be a tough challenge."

Based on the performances turned in by both squads at Duke this weekend, their competitors in upcoming tournaments will have a strong opponent in the Judges.