Penn Edges Harvard Fencers, 14-13, Brown Receives Dualists' Wrath, 20-7

The spirit of the holiday season has invaded Cambridge, reaching as faces the inside of the IAB, and the proof of that seems to be In the Harvard men's fencing team's 14-13 loss to Penn on Saturday.

"We gave it away, like a Christmas present," said Crimson Coach Ben Zivkovic, who, among others, thought his team about have beaten the Quakers.

"We are physically ready, but not mentally," explained Captain Stephen Kaufer, who attributed the defeat to Harvard's loss of a "number of very close boats."

Kaufer said he though Penn would be tough--they've been at the top of the lives consistently in recent years--but was still hoping for a 6-3 victory in both epee and foil.

"Penn gets a lot of strength from psyching up, from screaming and yelling," said sophomore Luca Cicchelli, adding. "They got the psychological edge in the social round, a round in which the Quakers soundly defeated Harvard, 6-3.

Although the Crimson led 11-7in the third found, Penn was able to ride on its momentum and come from behind..

"We knew the match wouldn't be a lead pipe cinch, but we're not giving it back." said Penn Coach Dave Micahmik of the victory..

"Neither team was at its beat," Micahmik saids. "The mach wasn't indicative because neither team was ready. "He added that if the teams had not met until February, the outs come might have been different."

However, some Harvard fencers--especially the freshmen--showed great potential during the early season match.

Freshman sabre duelist Kevin McCarthy won two hard-fought 5-4 bouts in his, first Ivy League contact, said frosh Toll special at Brian Schaffield came out on top twice in his Ivy debut.

The other bright spot in the mach was Kauffer's sweep of all three of his epee contests, with Cicchetti taking the other two epee victories. Epee was the only area Harvard won.

"We should have, we could have, won," Cicchetti concluded after the match.

Divine Providence

The team really demonstrated its potential in its potential in its second Saturday match against Brown, replacing most of its starters after the first round and defeating the Bruins 20-7..

Another of the squad's 13 Yardlings, Joshua Weintraub, took all three of his sabre bouts while Harvard dominated the competition, 8-1.

The Crimson further embarrassed the Bruins in epee, 7-2, and foil, 5-4, where Schaffield also took all three of his bouts.

After Saturday's matches, though, much talk centered around the scheduling of the early-season contests and not the actual results.

"I hate it," Micahmik said of this year's controversial schedule, which caused Saturday's matches to be held in December. He said he hopes the matches will again be in February next year, giving both teams a little more time to improve and mature.

Zivkovic said the Ivy League has no fixed schedule for fencing. "It's hit and run, and this year we got hit," he added.