January 21, 2002

Fencing Team Returns From Hiatus, Beats Drew

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After competing only once going into winter break, the women’s fencing team was understandably nervous going into yesterday’s match against Drew University. Cornell’s worries were proven to be unfounded as the Red beat the Rangers, 20-7 at the Stifel Fencing Salle.

“I personally was pretty nervous,” senior Tara Hatami said. “It was the first match coming back from break. Sometimes they’re tricky.”

Cornell had a little trouble in the first rounds, as it began slowly. However, it turned it around in the second and carried the momentum into the third round to thoroughly overwhelm Drew.

“That first round was a little rough,” Hatami said.

The Red also managed victories in all of its weapons: the epee, foil and saber. Only the epee squad had garnered a win against the Elis earlier in the season on Dec. 2.

“It’s really good for morale when we all do well,” Hatami said of the strong performance from all the weapons’ teams.

Led by senior captain Patty Blumenauer, the epee squad notched an 8-1 victory, the most lopsided victory of all the weapons. Blumenauer swept her competition, 3-0. Sophomores Stephanie Glaser and Erica Wilhelm also were undefeated, 2-0 and 1-0, respectively.

“The epee squad did really well,” Hatami said.

In the foil — Drew’s best weapon — Hatami also won all three of her matches, while both juniors Rachel Lee and Tara Watkins went 2-1 for a 7-2 win.

Drew gave the Red the most trouble in the saber. Sophomore Erin Conroy was the final fencer to not drop a match (3-0). Senior Elinor Granzow solidified the 5-4 win in the weapon with a 2-1 record on the day.

The win against Drew puts Cornell in a good position against the oncoming Ivy competition.

Next weekend the Red has a more formidable task when it travels to Harvard to face both the Crimson and NYU.

Archived article by Amanda Angel