M. Fencing starts out with success

On Saturday, the Penn men's fencing team lunged into Happy Valley for its opening meet, the Penn State Multi-Meet, and came away with a 3-1 record. Penn was able to handily defeat North Carolina, 19-8, Duke, 18-9, and Hunter, 25-2, but was unable to pull off the upset against No. 6 Stanford, falling, 16-11. "I'm really pleased," freshman epee Mike Sanders said. "Despite the loss to Stanford, people were winning bouts that they said we couldn't win. I think we surprised a lot of people." The Quakers, ranked No. 9 in the nation entering Saturday's multi-meet, are upset about their loss to Stanford, but they are not surprised by the quality of the Cardinal team. "Every guy on Stanford is extremely good," junior foilist Andrew Radu said. "Nevertheless, we had a lot of good close bouts. The actual result looked a lot more lopsided than it actually was." Against Stanford, Penn won, 6-3, in sabre, yet lost foil, 8-1, and epee, 5-4. The win at sabre was a surprise, as the sabre team is considered to be the Quakers' weakest link. "Going into that match, we knew they were going to be our biggest challenge," freshman sabre Mark Kindrachuk said. "That pumped us up mentally. We knew we had to try our hardest and we did." Despite losing, the epees also surprised the Cardinals as they too were considered to be weak this season, starting three new fencers. "They weren't ready for us," Sanders said. "They didn't expect too much. They were thinking things like, 'They are all new, and one of them is a freshman. They can't be that good.'" The foil, considered Penn's best position, was upset by its lopsided defeat against Stanford. Nevertheless, it performed well given the absence of Jeff Breen -- a second-team All-American and first-team All-Ivy member last season. "It would have been nice if Jeff was there. We would have beaten Stanford," Radu said. "Still, Stanford is the best foil team in the country without a doubt. We are not going to face a better squad all year." Hunter proved to be no challenge at all for Penn. Both foil and epee swept the Hawks, 9-0, while sabre went 7-2. "Word on the street going into the match was that they were really weak," Kindrachuk said. "But we didn't let that hurt us. We still fenced our best." The team was proud of its results against Duke and North Carolina, two teams that have given the Quakers trouble in the past. "Those were two really good results for us," Radu said. "Last year, we just squeaked by UNC, and this year, we blew right by them. It shows how we are more well rounded." Individually, the team was led by strong performances by its freshmen -- sabres Bill Caulin (9-3) and Kindrachuk (10-2) and epee Sanders (10-1). "Those three freshmen were just phenomenal," Radu said. Other top performers were foils Radu (9-3), Yale Cohen (8-2) and Stephen Gavalas (7-5). Sophomore epee Chungxing Mah was 7-5. Next up for the Quakers is their Ivy League opener against Yale on Saturday in New Haven, Conn. "It'll be a good match and it should run more smoothly," Sanders said. "We'll be much less rusty."

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