Flawless Sabre, Foil Play Downs Jumbos

The Harvard women’s fencing team showed its depth yesterday, cruising to an easy 24-3 victory over the Tufts Jumbos (1-2) at the MAC despite resting its sophomore co-captains Caroline Vloka and Noam Mills.

Coming off a 6-0 run at last Saturday’s Harvard Invitational—where the Crimson defeated the defending national champion Penn State in a 14-13 squeaker—Harvard improved it record to 7-0 with its win over Tufts. Crimson coach Peter Brand has called his team’s performance this year “terrific” and yesterday’s meet against Tufts was no exception. In what Brand called “a rout in every respect,” the Harvard sabre and foil squads both went undefeated, going 9-0. The epee squad also had a strong performance, going 6-3.

Making the feat more impressive was the fact that Brand sat some of his best fencers to allow fencers further down on the depth chart to get a chance to perform. Vloka and Mills, who both medaled at Garrett Penn State Open to begin the season, were among those who sat out the meet this week. But Volka and Mills, who were suited up for the meet, were still on hand to lend their teammates support.

Junior sabre squad member Yunsoo Kim was one of the fencers who took advantage of her opportunity to see action. Kim went 3-0 at the meet.

“This is actually my first fencing of the year, so I was pleased,” Kim said.

Kim’s squadmates sophomore Hayley Levitt and freshman Elena Helgiu also did their part to help the sabre squad stay perfect at 9-0. Helgiu won a particularly fierce bout where sparks flew as she crossed sabres with Tuft’s sophomore Brianna Smith. Levitt was also involved in a memorable contest against Tuft’s sophomore Sarah Danly, a match in which she was able to pull away in the end with a 5-3 victory.

The Harvard women’s foil squad also made short work of Tufts, going 9-0 and finishing off its opponents in time to cheer on its teammates on the epee squad as they closed out their bouts. Senior Arielle Pensler started off the foil squad’s win streak with a victory in the opening match of the meet.

The Crimson’s greatest challenge in yesterday’s meet came from Tuft’s epee squad. Harvard struggled early against the Jumbos, with freshmen Felicia Sun and Alexa Fishman both losing contests.

But the pair came storming back in later bouts. Sun posted two resounding 5-0 sweeps to assist the Crimson to a comfortable victory in the epee. Fellow freshman epee Nadia Eldeib also did her part, overpowering her opposition in a lopsided matchup to end the meet.

Brand was very proud of his team’s performance against Tufts, calling it “absolutely flawless.”

“They all performed extremely well, and I really cannot point to one person who did better than the others,” he said. “This is a team performance all the way, I’m very happy with that, it shows me that we’re fairly deep.”

Brand was also quick to praise his team’s spirit, a sentiment shared by Kim.

“I think our team spirit is strong...and our connection each other is strong,” Kim said. “We have a good future.”

Next up for Harvard is the St. John’s Invitational on Jan. 24th. Brand emphasized the difficulty of the competition at the Invitational, calling it a meeting of the best teams in the country.

“It’ll be it’ll be tough but my fencers are ready and I look forward to [the Invitational],” Brand said.