The fencing team is looking forward to its toughest weekend to date. It will be facing four of the strongest teams in the NCAA. Penn State finished second in the NCAA championships last year and was the NCAA champion the previous four years. Cornell is also matched against rivals Penn, Columbia, and Temple.
Head coach Al Peters is confident his team will play well coming off a bye week.
“[The team has] trained very well and it’s always fun to go out and fence against the best,” stated Peters.
Senior Tara Hatami, the foil team captain, enthusiastically agreed.
“Everyone will fence well, because everyone has been practicing really hard. [The meet is a] good test of how far we’ve come. [It would] be nice to finish strong,” she said.
Penn State is a powerhouse in the collegiate fencing community, but Cornell senior epee captain Patricia Blumenauer believes the Red can have some success.
“We can do SELl if we’re on top of our game,” she commented.
She stated that the team has been practicing vigorously during the past two weeks in anticipation of challenging a potential NCAA champion.
“[It’s an opportunity to] boost individual records, which will look good for regionals,” said Blumenauer.
Home-Court Advantage
Penn, which is hosting the match, should enjoy the advantage of being the home team. Temple, the other Philadelphia school at the contest, should also have fans present. The match begins tomorrow morning.
Archived article by Joe Licitra