MEDFORD, MA ( February 5, 2023) – The Tufts University women's fencing team earned a share of the Northeast Fencing Conference (NFC) title today after hosting and sweeping through seven matches at the Gantcher Center.
Tufts entered the day with a 5-1 NFC mark. Adding their 7-0 record today, the Jumbos finished at 12-1 to tie with Brown University. Tufts defeated Brown in head-to-head NFC action, but there are no tie-breakers in the NFC standings.
Before the day even started, Tufts was awarded a forfeit win (27-0) against a Drew University team that was unable to participate. The Jumbos then strung together a 24-3 win over Northeastern (not an NFC opponent), won 19-8 versus Sacred Heart, defeated the University of New Hampshire 24-3, topped Wellesley 17-10, earned a 24-3 final over Boston University, posted a 20-7 victory against the University of Massachusetts and then finished their day with a 21-6 final over Smith.
The Jumbos dominated their seven sabre matches today, winning 55 of 63 bouts. They were nearly that successful in foil as well, finishing with a 51-12 record. The epee team won two-thirds of its matches to total a 42-21 mark for the day. Overall the Jumbos had a 148-41 record in the three weapons.
The Wellesley match provided the biggest challenge, but the Jumbos scored a 6-3 win in foil, 5-4 in epee and 6-3 in sabre.
Sydnee Lau,
Lea Levi and
Daniella Davia each won twice in foil.
Karen Bei was 3-0 in epee, while
Emily Valadez,
Anat Katz and
Alexia Newell all added two sabre wins to support the victory.
Against Sacred Heart, Lau, Levi and
Shannon Chen all swept their three foil matches giving the Jumbos a 9-0 advantage that led the way. Tufts took 5-4 scores in the epee and sabre matches against the Pioneers, with three victories by Newell in sabre helping the cause.
Otherwise, Tufts dominated the other five opponents with 20+ wins in those matches. For the day Tufts won 20 of the 21 weapon bouts overall.
In the foil matches, Levi won 15 of her 16 bouts (.938), Lau was 14-1 (.933) and Chen finished 11-1 (.917). Davia was undefeated in eight matches.
For sabre, all four Jumbos who fenced had success at over 80-percent. Katz finished at .889 (16-2),
Millie Girardi came in at .882 (15-2) and Valadez won at an .850 clip (17-3). Newell finished with a 7-1 mark (.875).
Bei was an unbeaten 9-0 to lead Tufts in epee.
Ayelet Book (6-2, .750),
Olivia Tomasello (8-4, .667) and
Arianna Minassian (6-4, .600) also won at 60-percent or better in epee today.
The Jumbos (19-9 overall) will be competing at the FDU Invitational in New Jersey next Sunday.
--JUMBOS--
