Fencing in front of a raucous home crowd in the Stifel Fencing Salle, the Cornell women’s fencing team (6-5) went 2-1 this past Saturday. There wasn’t one great individual effort to speak of per se. Everyone did well according to head coach Al Peters.
“[It was] a tremendous team effort”, he said.
Cornell posted dominant wins against both James Madison (18-9) and Fairleigh Dickinson (20-7), but Ivy League powerhouse Princeton defeated the Red by the score of19-8.
Cornell crushed JMU and FDU, sweeping in all three weapons (foil, sabre, epee).
During the FDU match, Cornell took full advantage of the depth of its bench by utilizing walkons, sophomores Ester Pullen and Keri Vershure, who scored points in their respective foil bouts.
“[Pullen and Vershure] don’t get to fence that often,” senior captain and epee specialist Patrisha Blumenauer said of the pairs’ exciting victories.
While the Red handily defeated JMU and FDU, it underestimated the strength of the Princeton team.
“Princeton was stronger than expected,” Peters noted.
However, the Red sabre squad claimed a moral victory against the Tigers and finished an undefeated 5-0 on the day.
Blumenauer was the top performer, finishing with a team-high seven bout wins.
“It’s a good chance to pick up some wins,” Bluemenauer said.
Archived article by Joe Licitra