Women Reign Supreme

The Harvard women's fencing team breezed to an easy 14-2 victory over Brandeis in a dual meet last night at Malkin Athletic Center.

Having defeated M.I.T., 9-7, on Tuesday night, the fencers--led by Captain Penelope Papailias--have now captured their third victory in as many games.

Last night Papailias, Michelle Kosch, and Christina Perkin were undefeated in all their bouts--combining for 11 of Harvard's 14 bout triumphs. Sophmore Amy Neuhardt took the other three matches, against one loss.

Papailias, undefeated this season, brandished her now-patented fast attack maneuver, sealing each of her bouts in a matter of minutes.

"Papailias' fencing is super this year," Harvard Coach Branimir Zivkovic said, "and I don't say super very often."

Brandeis Captain Frederica Strumpf attributed the loss to the recent Thanksgiving vacation and the team's subsequent lack of practice.

"I don't think they're a better team," Strumpf said, "but they are better organized and they have a stronger center of leadership right now."

Brandeis, who had problems with Harvard's quick offensive attack, could not match up with the aggressive Crimson.

"They're a very powerful attacking team and we just weren't ready for it." Brandeis' Amy Lydell said. "Although our fencing was technically sound, we were overpowered by their agressive tactics."

"We had a lot of spirit," Papailias said. "We were fencing directly, making it a much shorter meet than Tuesday night's."

Improvement

Perkin also said last night's rounds showed an improvement over the team's performance against M.I.T.

"We were fencing a lot smarter than on Tuesday," she said. "We were thinking about what we were doing and not just going after the target blindly."

The team hopes that its success in the past three meets is indicative of a trend that will sweep it to victory in a key December 5 match against Columbia.

"I think our record against Brandeis is a good sign for the Columbia meet," said Papailias. "I don't think we've ever beat them and it would be really nice to."