Women Fencers Sweep Four Weekend Matches

The Harvard women's fencing team jabbed, stabbed and nabbed four victories against Wellesley College, Brooklyn College, Vassar College and William Patterson College this weekend in Wellesley.

With no equipment failures and good facilities, the fencers were able to concentrate on winning, and winning only.

In the first match against Wellesley, the swordswomen proved their superior fencing skills, grabbing a 11-5 victory. Captain Penelope Papailias easily outfenced her Wellesley opponents, grabbing all four bouts. In fact, Papailias maintained a clean slate throughout the tournament, winning all of her 16 bouts.

The swordswomen continued their wrath, easily defeating both Brooklyn College and Vassar, 11-5. Because of a lack of time, Harvard fenced William Patterson College only until they clinched the victory, 9-3.

"Basically, we walloped them," Papailias said.

In addition Papailias' perfect performance, Harvard's Kristina Perkins captured all but one of her contests, Amanda Lenesse won eight of 14 bouts, and Amy Neuhardt clinched seven of 12 matches.

Fine Tuning

The fine performances of the first four fencers enabled some of the usual "bench sitters" to see some action. Freshman Sue Chan posted a respectable 2-2 record, beating her opponents from both Brooklyn and Vassar Colleges, 5-3.

"It was basically an endurance match. We showed our consistency" Papailias said, "and we got to try out some of our young blood."

Next weekend won't be the time for tryouts as the team meets up with Cornell at Malkin Athletic Center on Saturday and then travels to Boston University where it will fence all day Sunday in the New England Championships.