The men and women’s fencing teams cruised in strong weekend performances against regional opponents at the second Northeast Fencing Conference meet on Saturday, going a combined 10-1 on the day. The men’s squad clinched a share of the NFC title—their first since 2009—with a 5-0 record on the day while the women fenced to a 5-1 record and sit at 9-3 in NFC meets this year.

“Standing in second place is definitely a testament to how hard our squads have worked so far this year,” said Nina Sayles ’17. “The team added an extra conditioning session this fall which I believe has helped us be in better shape for the long competition days, and many of our fencers are generally motivated to work hard towards getting better in and outside of practice.” 

“Although Sacred Heart will have the opportunity to knock us out of our second place spot at the last conference round-robin in February, our ability to pull off close wins over ever-improving Tufts and Dartmouth, and our landslide victories over long-time rivals Vassar and Boston College prove that we definitely deserve our top-3 spot in the rankings,” she continued.

The Judges squared off against six teams, defeating Boston College, Dartmouth University, Tufts University, Vassar College and Smith College, while the women’s squad’s only loss was to Brown University.

The women’s squad began its day with its only loss, falling to Brown 16-11, but the bout featured a 7-2 victory for the epeeists and impressive showings from Liz Feller ’18, who went 3-0, Caroline Mattos ’16, Sonya Glickman ’16 and Gwendolyn Mowell ’16, who all went 2-1 against Brown.

 The saber squad led the way for most of the day, going 9-0 against Vassar and 8-1 against BC, and the foilists added a 7-2 record against BC.

Feller ended the day winning 10 of her 15 bouts, while Mowell and Glickman both went 6-5 on the day. Mattos finished the day at 15-1, the best record of any Brandeis fencer for the day.

Sayles went 10-5 on the day with a +16 indicator, while Jaclyn Hammond ’16 won five of her 10 bouts at the meet.

“Performing so well at this weekend's tournament was refreshing, because I felt like I was previously in a bit of a rut,” Sayles explained.  “During the first semester I found that I was, at times, too concerned with how my opponents had previously performed. 

“I overestimated some fencers and found myself going into many bouts with a preconceived notion that I would lose, while I underestimated others, too often giving them the upper-hand … In this past weekend's competition, I finally channeled the endurance, consistency, and mental game that I had been working for all season,” she remarked.

The squad won back-to-back 14-13 victories over Tufts and Dartmouth before closing the day with a 19-8 rout of Smith.

The men’s squad can earn the NFC title outright if Sacred Heart University falls at the final NFC meet, earning the tie-breaking head-to-head victory 15-12 on Nov. 15.

The men swept all three weapons in victories over Brown, BC, Tufts, Vassar and Dartmouth, crushing Tufts 24-3 and Dartmouth 20-7. The squad doubled up BC and Dartmouth with matching 18-9 scores and needed a close 14-13 victory over Brown.

The Judges saw a number of strong performances in the victory over Brown, including a perfect 3-0 meet from Adam Mandel ’15. Guillermo Narvaez ’18, Noah Berman ’15, Thomas Hearne ’17, Hunter Stusnick ’18 and Kyle Berney ’18 all went 2-1 against the Bears to solidify the victory.

The two squads were knotted at 13 when Stusnick earned a 5-2 victory to clinch the meet.

Berney finished the day with a 10-3 record overall, tops of the saber squad, while Berman and Narvaez led the way for the foilists with 8-1 and 8-2 records, respectively.

Earlier in the week, the women’s squad won their eighth-straight meet versus Wellesley College in their annual mid-week matchup with the Blue last Tuesday.

The Judges dropped a 5-4 decision in foil but won the epee bouts 6-3 and the saber bouts 5-4 to earn a 15-12 victory. Feller led the way for the Judges, earning wins in both of her bouts against Wellesley opponents.

Hammond went 4-0 to lead the saberists, while Emilia Dwyer ’16 went 2-0 in her foil bouts.

“For those who did not travel to Colorado [on Jan. 15], the Wellesley meet was a great way to get back into competition before this past weekend's big NFC meet,” Sayles said.

The Judges will return to the mat on Saturday afternoon for a home meet versus New York University before traveling to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Eric Solee Invitational on Sunday.

“NYU is the only other school in the UAA with a varsity fencing program, so this match will be a pseudo UAA championship match,” Sayles said. On Sunday … I expect that if we all fence our best and treat every bout like a key match, the women will come away with five easy wins. Duke [University] will be a challenging match, and hopefully with determination and consistency we can avenge our loss from two weeks ago. 

—Editor’s note; Guillermo Narvaez is an editorial assistant for the photos section of the Justice.