It has been four years since the Penn women's fencing team was able to defeat Ivy League rival Yale. And after this weekend, the Quakers will just have to wait a little longer to beat them. The Elis defeated the host Quakers, 17-10, at Weightman Hall on Saturday, dropping the Quakers to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in Ivy League competition. While Penn and Yale were even in bouts in the epee and foil, the problem for the Red and Blue arose in the sabre, where the Quakers were defeated handily by an 8-1 margin. "The Yale sabre squad was very aggressive and proved to be a very tough match for us," Penn captain Heba Abdulla said. "I thought I fenced well, but they just had a little bit of an edge." The edge was largely due to the fact that the Elis are more experienced than the Penn sabre fencers, who just switched weapons at the beginning of this season. "They've been training a lot longer than us in sabre," said freshman Christina Verigan, who pulled out the lone win for the Quakers sabre squad. "But we held our own and when we meet them again, we will be more prepared." Yale sophomore sabre Helen Liu, sister of Penn men's fencing captain David Liu, knows the Elis were much more prepared for the sabre competition. "It was very iffy at the beginning of the year, because we didn't know what the other sabre squads would be like," said Liu, who went 3-0 for the day. "But we're looking very good so far this season and hopefully we will stay strong for the rest of the season." While the Penn sabre fencers lacked experience, the Quakers foilists and epeeists had no such problem against the visitors from New Haven. Penn's foilists, led by freshman Lauren Staudinger, who won all three of her bouts, defeated Yale 5-4. Senior Margo Katz and freshman Stacey Wertlieb picked up the other two victories for the Quakers. "The foil team came out strong and finished well," Staudinger said. "Yale won the Ivies in foil last year, but we were not intimidated." Another newcomer led the way for the epeeists. Freshman Kim Linton also had an unblemished record on Saturday as the epee squad came up just short, losing 5-4 to the Elis. Sophomore Mindy Nguyen won the other bout for the Red and Blue. "I felt really strong during the meet, and I'm very satisfied with how I fenced," Linton said. "It was really important to win the last touch of the last bout to make up for last week's disappointment against Rutgers. It made the match doubly important." Despite the outstanding performance of Penn's freshmen fencers, who combined to capture eight of the Quakers' 10 wins, the meet was still a disappointment for Penn. "The team overall did not perform as well as it could have, and we did not meet our potential," Katz said. "However, Yale is one of the toughest teams in the league, and when we see some of their fencers in IFAs [Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championship], we'll put them back in their place." Penn coach Dave Micahnik also realized that his fencers did not do as well as they could have. "The sabres need to work, and the foil and epee squads left a couple of bouts on the table," Micahnik said. "We're not far from being a strong team, but we're not quite there yet."
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