Women Fencers Slice Through SMU

The weekend had its ups and downs for the Harvard women's fencing team.

The swordswomen defeated Southeastern Massachusetts University, 5-4, Saturday afternoon in the IAB. Then --minus two of its top fencers --the team failed to place anyone in the finals of the New England Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association Christmas Invitational held at Brandeis Sunday.

Invitation Only

In the Invitational, sophomore Carolyn Powell led the Crimson, reaching the semifinals and placing 12th out of the 60 women fencers in the meet. Leslie Feder, usually a J.V. fencer, also reached the semifinals.

A knee injury to captain Jenny LaForet in the quarterfinals and the absence of another top Crimson fencer, Kathy Lowry --due to illness--hindered the swordswomen's performance.

Coach Shelley Burman said he had planned on having two or three Harvard fencers in the finals, but was not counting on losing two of his top athletes.

Pop Goes the...

"I thought that both Kathy and Jenny would have made the finals. Jenny's knee just popped all of a sudden in the quarterfinals, which is too bad, because she was fencing beautifully up until that time," he said.

"Of course, I was really pleased with the way the other girls fenced, especially Carolyn, who had a tough weekend," Burman added.

Though Powell was unable to fence Saturday against SMU, the Crimson clinched the win in a match that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

"I made some substitutions after we clinched it," Burman said. "That way, more of the girls got to fence." LaForet and Lowry each went 2-1 in their matches, as the women evened their record at 1-1.