The fencing team held its Senior Day on Saturday as the men and women hosted several other universities in this year’s edition of the Eric Sollee Invitational. 14 seniors are set to graduate this year from the fencing team, and friends and family honored them in attendance in a special ceremony. 

In the meet, the women’s team went 4-1, defeating New Jersey Institute of Technology, Hunter College, Haverford College and New York University, while only falling to Stevens Institute of Technology in a close 15-12 matchup. The men’s team went 3-2, defeating Stevens, Hunter and Haverford and losing to NJIT and NYU. The matchups against NYU were especially important as they represented the only UAA conference matchup for Brandeis. These results move the women’s team to 18-5 overall while the men move to 15-5.

Women — 4 wins, 1 loss

As an overall squad, women’s foil had the most successful day, going 5-0 on the day. Caroline Mattos ’16 posted a 9-1 record for the foil squad with her only loss coming against NYU. Sophomore Zimeng Xue ’18 added her own 7-2 mark to contribute to the foil team’s dominance and help propel the overall team to important wins against NYU and Haverford. 

The women’s epee squad had a big day as well, as Sonya Glickman ’16 posted the day’s best winning percentage of any Brandeis fencer at 10-1. She defeated Julia Garcia of NJIT, who was a semifinalist in last year’s NCAA tournament, and posted perfect records against both NJIT and NYU. Before the meet Glickman commented on the importance of Senior Day explaining, "Having such a large group of seniors has made my experience on the fencing team so memorable and enjoyable." 

Gwen Mowell ’16 added nine more wins for the epees. The saberists were led by Laura Broffman ’18 who went 7-1 in three matches and Ashley Jean ’17, who went 8-4 upon her return from injury.  This performance comes off the heels of a 19-8 mid-week victory for the women’s team against Wellesley College on Tuesday. 

Broffman and Nina Sayles ’17 posted 3-0 records in that meet for the sabre team to win 8-1 while Glickman and Mowell posted 2-0 records to propel the epeeists to a 6-3 win. Six women fenced for the foil squad as Joanne Carminucci ’19 went 2-0 and seniors Emilia Dwyer ’16, Annie Kim ’16 and Mattos each added one win.

Men — 3 wins, 2 losses

On the men’s side, the epee team had the best performance at 3-2 while foil and sabre went 2-3, suffering some close defeats. Individually, Guillermo Narvaez ’18 posted the best mark of the starters for the men’s team, going 9-4 on foil. 

Fellow foilist Toby Gray ’16 did not lose a bout all day, earning 3-0 marks against Hunter and Haverford. Kyle Berney ’18 also added 10 wins for the Judges, with 2-1 marks against NJIT and Haverford and 3-0 marks against Stevens and Hunter. 

For the epeeists, Tom Hearne ’16 racked up six wins on the day, with 2-1 marks against both Stevens and NYU. Hearne spoke about the home field advantage before the game noting, "Fencing at home is always great because Brandeis friends can come watch and support the team." Ten different fencers contributed to the epee team’s 3-2 record on the day. 

The Judges will travel to Duke University next weekend to take on Duke, University of North Carolina, Notre Dame College, Penn State University and Johns Hopkins University in the Duke Invitational. The men have beaten Duke in each of the past two seasons and look to replicate that mark.