January 31, 2006

Fencers Earn Four Wins At Wellesley Invitational

Print More

Coule, ballestra coupe, plaque, croise. The women’s fencing team pulled out every attacking trick to thoroughly dominate this past weekend at the Wellesley Fencing Invitational in Wellesely, Mass.

Coming off a weekend where the team finished 3-4 against stiff competition, including No. 9 Penn and No. 7 Northwestern, the Red came out last Saturday confident, and dusted off Vassar and Hunter, while earning convincing victories over Wellesley and Tufts. The wins gave the Red six wins in its last seven matches, moving the team to 7-4 overall.

“We just weren’t nervous anymore,” said sophomore epeeist Erica Waichman. “Last week was our first match and we played tight. After some good work in practice, though, I felt both emotionally, and physically stronger.”

What it really boiled down to, according to freshman standout Alex Heiss, was that most of the teams this past weekend “weren’t as competitive” as Cornell’s previous opponents, as noted by scores of 26-1 and 23-4 in their routes over Vassar and Hunter, respectively. Heiss led the sabre team to records of 9-0 in each blowout.

“Still, we fenced our hardest,” she said. “It was important that we thought touch by touch and continue to think that way. Personally, I didn’t do as well as last week, so I will work on landing a longer attack