Fencing teams gain edge over opponents

Elizabeth Pacheco Senior Editor

When Vassar’s men’s and women’s fencing teams were asked to fill an empty spot at the Princeton Invitational this past Saturday, Dec. 1, Head Coach Bruce Gillman happily took the opportunity.

“In order for our best athletes to get into the [National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships], we need to go up against the best,” Gillman said.

The Brewers did just that, facing strong teams from Princeton University, University of North Carolina (UNC) and New York University (NYU), as well as the 2006 and 2007 National Champions, Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University, respectively.

While the men’s side, which had a 4-0 record before the tournament, suffered tough losses to Penn State, Harvard and Princeton, the team pulled through with two impressive victories over UNC (16-11) and NYU (15-12). This is the first time Vassar has recorded wins over these schools, after losing to UNC last season and NYU every previous year.

“We proved that we can beat some of the better schools,” said Gillman. “We went into the match knowing that we could lose everything.” Critical to both these victories were strong performances from the épée squad by captain Paul Brehm ’08, Hassan Sakhtah ’10 and Zach Pattison-Gordon ’10, as well as Alex Snow ’09 in sabre and Jesse Bisignano ’10 and Conor Kenney ’11 in foil.

For the women, the tournament proved more difficult, as the team dropped all four matches, although there was a series of individual victories. Freshmen Sophie Courser and Domino Gehred-O’Connell performed well in épée, as did Jackie Kory ’11 and Melissa Lee ’10 in foil and Julie Carlsen ’11 in sabre.

“The schools that we met [this past weekend] are some of the hardest ones we met all season,” said co-captain Kristina Poznan ’08. “We’re hoping that we can learn from the challenges we faced to do better in some of our tougher matches.”

The women’s team has been facing challenges all season. The squad currently has three fencers abroad, including Molly Soiffer ’09, a talented member of the épée squad. “Numbers-wise, because of [Junior Year Abroad (JYA)] and talent-wise, we have had to shuffle around to fill slots,” said Gillman. “Two walk-ons have really helped us. [Gehred-
O’Connell] fenced épée [this weekend] and had only picked it up last Tuesday in fencing class,” and came away with two victories against Harvard.

“We’ve been working hard to recruit more women and allow more flexibility in the schedule,” said co-captain Emily Frederiksen ’08.
Despite their lack of numbers and experience, Gillman is pleased with how quickly the team has grown since his first season in 2005. “When I got here, the entire women’s sabre squad was walk-ons,” he said. “At least now, all starters are experienced.”

Conversely, the men’s squad will likely be hurting next semester when they lose Snow, last year’s New England Champion, to JYA. Although Chris Benson ’09 will return to take his place in sabre, the team will not be as strong as during this fall semester.

“We will make up in numbers, but not in talent,” said Gillman. “We’ll see how we do without [Snow].”

With exams and winter break quickly approaching, the team will take a brief break from organized practices. They will return to campus Jan. 16 to prepare for a match the following weekend at West Point.

Looking ahead, the team aims to perform well against the top New England Conference teams at the Boston College Tournament on Jan. 26, as well as at the New England Championships three weeks later on Feb. 16. “I think that this season's team is the strongest that Vassar has ever fielded,” said Brehm of the men’s team. “We have a very good chance to upset some of the traditional powerhouses in Boston.”

Most important, though, is the North East NCAA Regional match Vassar will host on Saturday, March 2. Results from that day will determine which fencers will move on to the NCAA tournament on March 13.

A Brewer has not qualified for this tournament since Justin Bernstein ’06 did two years ago.

“We want to change that and I think this year we have a chance to,” said Gillman.