Harvard Posts Strong Results on the Road

The first tournament of the year brought mixed results for the Harvard fencing team, as the No. 2 men and No. 3 women travelled to Queens, N.Y., for the annual St. John’s Invitational yesterday.

After an undefeated run in the Sacred Heart Invitational last month on Dec. 5, the men once again opened with strong performances. In its opening match, the Crimson defeated No. 5 Ohio State, 18-9. After winning against the Buckeyes, the Crimson men would follow up with a pair of victories over host No. 3 St. John’s University, 16-11, and Ivy foe No. 8 Columbia, 18-9.

As in last year’s tournament, the sabre squad on the men’s side was the bright spot on the squad, playing a crucial role in matches against the Red Storm and the Lions.

“We had some really strong performances from our sabre squad—[junior co-captain] Valentin Staller, [freshman] Eric Arzoian, and [sophomore] Thomas Kolasa,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said. “They had only one loss throughout the day. These three guys were definitely our top performers of the tournament.”

But in spite of the commanding victories early in the tournament, the Harvard men were unable to run the table, as the Crimson dropped the final two matches of the day against No. 1 Notre Dame and the defending national champions, No. 4 Penn State.

“I think we did very well.” Staller said. “All the top ranked teams in the country were there. Even though we were missing one of our top players­—Mike Varius, who is away at the World Cup—we still had people like Ben Cohen step up to take his place. We played well, regardless, and that shows that we have a really deep team.”

The story was similarly optimistic on the women’s side. After being blanked, 5-0, in last year’s invitational, the Harvard women went 2-3 for the day, posting victories against St. John’s and Penn State.

Though the women dropped their opening match against No. 1 Notre Dame, 16-11, they would reverse the score against St. John’s to win, 16-11. Despite the victory against the Red Storm, the women would lose their next two matches against No. 10 Ohio State, 18-9, and No. 3 Columbia, 14-13. However, the Crimson would close out the tournament with an upset of No. 2 Penn State.

“On the women’s side we were a little inconsistent,” Brand said. “We were able to defeat a much stronger and better Penn State University team, but then we dropped a close match to Columbia when we shouldn’t have.”

Nevertheless, this year’s performance represented a strong turnaround from last year, and despite some inconsistency, will certainly bode well for future competitions.

“Overall I was very impressed with some of the individual performances,” Brand said. “We have a freshman, Alexandra Keiffer, who went undefeated for the day [in 15 matches].”

With both the men’s and women’s teams nationally ranked, the day’s outcome proved quite promising for the Crimson as it sets its sights on Ivy League play.

“It was a good indicator for us going forward,” Brand said. “The teams that we faced today were probably some of the toughest teams that we will face all year, and it was a really good preparation for us and the Ivy League championship coming up, so I’m feeling pretty good about our chances.”

“Overall, I think we saw really good performances from both sides coming back from the break. It shows that we have strength on the men’s side and great individual performers on the women’s [side].”

The fencing team will next see action on Feb. 6, when it squares off in the MIT Invitational.

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.