N.Y.U. Fencers Edge Crimson, 14-13

Nationally ranked New York University swept the final three epee matches to nip an upset-minded Crimson squad 14-13 at the I.A.B. Saturday. It was a heartbreaker for the Harvard swordsmen, who lost all three of those matches 5-4, and with them the chance to beat N.Y.U. for the first time in the history of fencing competition between the two schools.

The Crimson squad will travel to Brandeis today to take out its frustrations on the hapless Judges. It should have little trouble even without injured Dick Kolombotovich, the team's best foil fencer, whose absence in Saturday's meet was one of the inordinate number of bad breaks that cost the Crimson a win.

The hardest blow to believe came in Tom Musliner's first match, when the Crimson swordsman's foil broke against the second-ranked Violet fencer. Given an unfamiliar sword to continue with, Musliner went on to lose the match, but came back later to beat the first and third-ranked New Yorkers.

Trailing 10-8 going into the final round. the Crimson went ahead for the first time when the sabre fencers swept their three matches. The most dramatic of those wins came from third-ranked Paul Profeta, who beat N.Y.U's number one man, Howie Goodman, rated one of the five top sabremen in the country.

Crimson sabre fencer Dave Redman all but wrapped it up for Harvard when he substituted in the final foil match and beat the top-ranking Violet fencer to give Harvard a 13-11 lead.

Then, alas, came the disaster in epee.

The Crimson scoring was 5-4 in foil, 5-4 in sabre, and 3-6 in epee. No Harvard fencer won all three matches, but Dave Dooley and Musliner in foil, Al Makaitis and Profeta in sabre, and Bill Neaves in epee scored two victories apiece.

Coupled with a season-opening win over Holy Cross, the loss to the Violets left the Crimson with a 1-1 won-lost record.