Vloka Gets Back At Foe

Every college athlete dreams of one thing: winning a national championship. Sophomore co-captain Caroline Vloka made that dream a reality this past Saturday at the fencing NCAA championships. Her national title in the sabre and first-team All-America honor were especially sweet because they were laced with 10-years worth of retribution.

This weekend, Vloka led her team to a fifth place finish at the NCAA Championships at Harvard’s Gordon track, with a 15-13 victory in the individual finals over long time rival, Beijing bronze medalist, and Duke sophomore Becca Ward.

“Becca Ward and I have been fencing each other for years,” Vloka said. “We’re the same age, so… we’ve been competing since U-10.”

The history between Vloka and Ward is extensive, including many matchups on the national and even international level. At the 2006 U-17 world championships, Ward forged a comeback victory against Vloka to win the gold medal, 15-14. Last year, in the finals of the NCAA Championships, Ward defeated Vloka again, this time by a decisive score of 15-4. This Saturday, however, it was Vloka that would come out on the winning end of a thrilling back-and-forth contest.

“Caroline was successful, because she was really working hard for every point,” said sophomore saber Valentin Staller, who garnered a spot on the All-America second team with a sixth place finish this weekend. “What she did extremely well was… sort of getting Becca into a rhythm and then breaking it… She was able to change things up at the last second and score a few points that way.”

Last year’s finish left Vloka unsatisfied and forced her to enter this year with a different, more effective mentality.

“Instead of coming in being scared of her, I was really [mad] about last year because last year she kind of embarrassed me,” Vloka said. “That anger gave me the determination and intensity that I needed.”

The long rivalry provided Vloka with the motivation to end her winless drought against Ward.

“We have a lot of history,” Vloka added. “And I’ve never beaten her before. This was a ten year long fight.”

A win as epic as this doesn’t come easily, especially with so many talented fencers competing in the opening rounds. Vloka started off the two-day tournament slowly, losing three matchups and finishing the fourth round ranked fifth.

“My first day I didn’t do very well,” Vloka said. “I dropped three bouts, and, going into the second day, I knew I could only give myself one loss.”

This loss, as Vloka predicted, came against one of the sabre tournament’s third place finishers, St. John’s junior Dagmara Wozniak. But, despite these minor setbacks in the early parts of the competition, everything fell into place for Vloka, who was able to finish strong and win the bouts she needed to on the way to the national title. In the semifinals, she defeated Ohio State sophomore Margarita Tschomakova by a score of 15-10 and then went on to beat Ward by a slim two-point margin in the championship round.

“Caroline’s individual successes really help the team improve and succeed as a whole,” Staller said. “People look at her and they recognize the hard work she puts into the fencing, her [attitude] at practice and her mental preparation, and the confidence she exudes on the strip. I learn from that and I think everyone else on the team learns from that.”

Because the tournament schedule in itself is very demanding, fencers at this level need to be both physically fit and mentally tough.

“You need a lot of stamina, because we fence 23 bouts in two days,” said sophomore co-captain Noam Mills, the team’s only other first team All-America honoree, who took second place in the individual epee competition. “These bouts are taken into account for the team championship, but they also determine who will advance to the semifinals in the individual tournament… Every bout counts for a lot.”

Vloka proved that she has what it takes, posting an impressive 19 bouts won in two days and claiming the Crimson’s second-ever individual crown—its first since 2005.

“[Caroline] beat an Olympic medalist in the final,” Mills said. “It was very impressive to watch and it was even better because it was on our home turf here at Harvard.”

Part of a dominant sophomore fencing class, Vloka welcomes the next few seasons for the talented Harvard team with one main goal—a team title to match her own.

“The next thing that we have to do is win the national championship as a team,” Vloka said. “So hopefully that’s where [next year’s training] is going to take us.”