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01-22-23-fencing-vs-notre-dame-osu-samantha-turner

Penn women's fencing racked up seven wins at the Philadelphia Invite on Jan. 18-19.

Credit: Courtesy of Penn Athletics

The road to a second Ivy League championship is looking more and more promising. 

No. 7 Penn women's fencing had success at last weekend’s Philadelphia Invitational, and at this past weekend's Penn State Invitational with seven out of eleven and four out five wins at each meet respectively. What has driven these wins, according to the athletes, is the team-oriented and fun culture in the locker room. 

“Our goal for this meet was to work cohesively as a team and display the skills we have been working on for the past few weeks in preparation for the season to ramp up," senior foilist Katina Proestakis Ortiz wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. "As always, we want to get the most wins but we also want to have fun as individual athletes and a team."

Proestakis Ortiz also highlighted how her younger teammates stepped up and gained confidence in the collegiate fencing environment – which is much different than club or high school environments. 

“[It] is one of the best things to see as a senior. Even after we graduate, we care so much about this team,” she wrote. 

Senior foilist Sabrina Cho echoed this sentiment. Her personal goal was to create a welcoming and uplifting environment for her teammates — drawing from her years of collegiate fencing experience. 

And with this mentality, the Quakers succeeded. 

“There were definitely moments where even I, on my first day, didn't feel very good and I wasn’t fencing very well. My team really just uplifted me … It's really in our low points where our team feels like we truly care for each other,” Cho said. 

She described some of the key bouts of the weekend as “loud and intense.” It is in these moments where Cho stepped back and remembers why she and her team work so hard.

“Being able to represent Penn to the best of our ability is what we try to do as a team. I think that we executed this very well. I think that we support one another not only on the strip but off the strip," Cho said. "None of us sit down, we are always standing cheering for our other teammates who are fencing. Because of that energy and because of our constant support, we never feel like we're letting each other down,” she said.

Proestakis Ortiz recalled the entire team coming together to cheer together during the last bout of the second weekend. 

“[It] created such an empowering atmosphere,” she said. 

For Cho, having a positive headspace means focusing less on the results and more on keeping the greater team goals in mind and working hard to execute them. 

She noted that some of her teammates are feeling pressure to perform at a high level because the team won a share of the Ivy League Championship last year. Thus, the team has been increasing its training intensity.

In practice, this means simulating intense situational bouts, mimicking competitors, and doing competition simulation. Additionally, the team does rigorous morning lifts and engage in a lot of team bonding off the strip. Cho described the next few weeks as “crucial … and time to push ourselves to be the best versions of fencers, teammates, and students.”

“We have been working on our technical, physical, and psychological skills over the course of the season," Proestakis Ortiz wrote. “I think we have things to work on and are on the right track to achieve bigger goals.”

Cho emphasized that every member of the team is critical to success. 

“From [freshmen] to people who have been doing this a long time to recruits to walk-ons, everyone who is on the team is on the team. There's no bias,” she said. 

And in the last two weekends, everyone had the chance to contribute to the team's success and partake in its competitive spirit. According to Cho, that is what makes the moments more meaningful to her. 

“I would like our team to be remembered by all of the friendships that we’ve made. I’ve made lifetime friends, we all have. … [We will remember] all the little moments that we’ve shared and created together,” Cho said.

The men's and women's fencing teams will next compete in the Ivy League Championships Feb. 8-9 in the Palestra — fighting to win a share of Ivy glory.