Women Bounce Back To Win Pair

The Harvard men’s and women’s fencing teams finished their last regular-season matches in perfect fashion Saturday at the Eric Sollee Invitational in Waltham, Mass.

The men (8-5) finished the day with two wins, defeating Air Force, 17-10, and Haverford, 23-4, while the women also swept the same opponents, 24-3 and 21-6.

Although the Crimson’s competitors were unranked and less of a challenge at the start of the day, both fencing teams ultimately finished victorious.

“Every meet we have, whether it is strong competition or not, we always find a way to work on something we need to improve,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said. “It doesn’t matter who we are fencing. This was mostly about focus.”

Sophomore epee James Hawrot was a spark for the men Saturday, leading his weapon to a 9-0 win over Haverford and keying a 5-4 win against Air Force. Hawrot defeated senior Falcon Peter French, who, according to Brand, is one of the top epee fencers in the nation.

Joining Hawrot in the spotlight was freshman sabre Thomas Kolasa. The rookie led the sabre team over the Falcons and Fords, 6-3 and 8-1, respectively.

“Thomas Kolasa in sabre has really come a long way in terms of being able to consistently do well and control his bouting, both emotionally and physically,” Brand said. “He’s made some good adjustments.”

Kolasa’s performance helped his weapon to victory, even with an off weekend from sophomore star Valentin Staller.

But Brand recognizes the difficulties mentally and physically in fencing and has no doubts about Staller’s resilience.

“It was just one of those days,” Brand said about the sophomore sabre. “I’m confident [Staller] will be successful in the long run.”

Junior foil Hao Meng had a standout performance as the foil team notched 6-3 wins over both schools.

Brand applauded the junior’s focus throughout the day, acknowledging that although Meng was not competing against the most formidable opponents, he knew what was needed to get the job done.

“Hao Meng was one of our foil fencers who had been struggling,” Brand said. “His performance yesterday really seemed to show him breaking through some mental barriers.”

But it was Harvard’s women (9-5) who really shined in Saturday’s performance, bouncing back after a disappointing showing at last week’s St. John’s Invitational.

Once again, it was sophomore co-captain Caroline Vloka who put together another stellar performance in the sabre, going undefeated through the two matches.

The women’s sabre team finished 8-1 versus both Air Force and Haverford. Following suit was the epee team, which defeated the Falcons, 7-2, and the Fords, 5-4.

The women’s foil was the most successful weapon on Saturday, only losing one bout in defeating Air Force, 9-0, and Haverford, 8-1. Freshman foil Katherine Chou added another standout performance for her squad.

“We have a really solid foil squad,” said sophomore co-captain Noam Mills, who went 4-2 on the day for the epee squad.

“Kathy came in as a freshman and didn’t get a lot of chances at the beginning of the year,” she added. “Now that she’s getting the chances, she wants to prove to Coach she can do it.”

Even with the Crimson’s success, Brand admitted that there is a lot of work to do before the next competition.

“Fencing, it’s a long road,” Brand said. “You take any little gain you can build on and hope that the person has learned something and will get stronger as the season continues.”

Last Saturday was the end of the regular season for the Crimson, as its next competition will be for the Ivy Championship title.

In three weeks’ time, Harvard will begin competition against Cornell, Penn, and Yale in Ithaca, N.Y.

—Staff writer Melissa Schellberg can be reached at mlschell@fas.harvard.edu.