January 29, 2006

State College, Pa. - The University of North Carolina men's and women's fencing teams split their four matches on Saturday recording two wins and two losses each at the 2006 Penn State Invitational. The Men's team for the season is now 16-10 while the women are 16-11.

Head fencing coach Ron Miller critiques the weekend: "Both teams went two and two. For the men we reaffirmed again very good results against Drew and Haverford, which even though they are division three schools, they are top division three schools; they are very strong programs. They actually have more recruited athletes than we have. We always had close meets with them the last couple of years and this year we won everyone we were supposed to. We had a couple of close ones; it came down to the last two bouts in epee against Drew this time and still won. The confidence was there, but the biggest thing is that last year we would have been inconsistent, this year we haven't. When we had to do it, we did it. So, it was a big improvement in that respect. The match with Columbia was outstanding. They are a top five team. We won two weapons against them. We won the sabre 5-4, won the epee 5-4 and lost the foil 3-6. So the difference in the meet was one bout, actually one touch; it very close meet. I think they underestimated us, I think we were up for them. A good combination, you like to see that happen. They pretty much blew away Duke and a lot of other schools, so we felt pretty good about that result even though we lost. Against St. Johns the men didn't fence as well. We were a little bit more inconsistent. I think the Columbia meet took a little bit out of them, so that's the only thing that was even a little bit disappointing during the weekend was just that we went down more against St. Johns, both men and women, than we had in last three weeks, so that was a little disappointing. Across the board we fenced very well. The women's team really showed very strong performances against Drew and Haverford. They had won 14-13; the previous weekend they won 20-7 and 17-10. This time we pretty much put them away and that was pretty encouraging. They finished well against Columbia but again a little of inconsistently and not very well against St. Johns. Sabre was the only weapon that really showed anything against St. Johns and that again was a little disappointing."

UNC men's team totals:

UNC 17 vs. Haverford 10

Sabre 7-2 W.

Foil 3-6 L.

Epee 7-2 W

UNC 9 vs.St. Johns 18

Sabre 3-6 L.

Foil 4-5 L.

Epee 2-7 L.

UNC 14 vs. Drew 13

Sabre 7-2 W.

Foil 2-7 L.

Epee 5-4 W.

UNC 13 vs. Columbia 14

Sabre 5-4 W.

Foil 3-6 L.

Epee 5-4 W.

UNC women's team totals:

UNC 20 vs. Haverford 7

Sabre 7-2 W.

Foil 6-3 W.

Epee 7-2 W.

UNC 16 vs. Drew 11

Sabre 5-4 W.

Foil 5-4 W.

Epee 6-3 W.

UNC 4 vs. St. Johns 23

Sabre 3-6 L.

Foil 0-9 L.

Epee 1-8 L.

UNC 5 vs. Columbia 22

Sabre 3-6 L.

Foil 0-9 L.

Epee 2-7 L.