USAF ACADEMY, CO (November 22, 2025) – The Tufts University women's fencing team enjoyed an outstanding first day at the Western Invitational hosted by the U.S. Air Force Academy on Saturday.
The Jumbos faced five of the top Division I teams in the nation along with the top Division III team from last year and performed well.
In their opening meet versus Denison University, the top DIII team a year ago, Tufts earned a 15-12 victory. The Jumbos took six of the nine epee matches led by a 3-0 record from senior
Karen Bei and two wins from first-year
Emily You. A 5-4 victory in saber included two wins from both first-years
Emily Xu and
Asher Boynton. Sophomore
Saanvi Kapoor won twice in foil, where Tufts was edged 5-4.
In the next match against Northwestern University, who finished 10th at the NCAA Championships last year, Tufts was defeated 17-10. The Jumbos had a 5-4 victory in saber matches. The individual results for the Northwestern match were not yet available.
The Jumbos then earned a convincing 18-9 victory against a University of Incarnate Word (UIW) team that was 22nd at NCAA's in 2025. Tufts won foil and epee by 7-2 scores, including a 3-0 mark from Kapoor in foil. Sophomore
Jess Charalel and first-year
Katie Han both won twice in foil. Bei had two victories in epee, where UIW defaulted three matches. In saber, which Tufts lost 5-4, Boyton posted a 2-1 record.
The Jumbos were then able to take six matches against a Columbia team that was the NCAA runner-up last season. Bei won twice in epee, while Boynton and sophomore
Anahat Bawa in saber and first-year
Layla Roy and sophomore
Sophie Guan in foil all won matches.
Perhaps Tufts' best result of the day was a 15-12 win over a UC San Diego team that placed 14th in the national championship a year ago. The Jumbos' 7-2 win in saber featured three victories by Boynton and two each from Xu and Bawa. Tufts edged the Tritons 5-4 in epee, with You taking all three of her matches and Bei winning twice. A 6-3 loss in foil saw two wins by Kapoor.
Tufts then faced Ohio State in their last match of the day and took the sixth-place team from the 2025 NCAA's down to the wire in a 14-13 loss. The Jumbos won saber 6-3 as Bawa, Boynton and Xu all won twice. They also had the edge in foil 5-4, including three victories by Roy.
With the Northwestern results not included, the top winners for Tufts today were Bei in epee with a 10-4 mark (.714), Boynton in saber at 10-5 (.667) and Kapoor's 8-6 mark in foil (.571).
The Jumbos finish their stay at the Western Invitational tomorrow with matches against host Air Force (19th at NCAA's in 2025), Stanford (ninth) and local foe Brandeis (23rd).
--JUMBOS--
