Feb. 7, 2008

EVANSTON, ILL. - North Carolina's men's and women's fencing teams returned from the Northwestern Dual Meets with only three losses per team. The men finished 8-3, while the women finished 10-3.

The three losses for the men came against top-five teams from Ohio State, Stanford and Notre Dame.

"We fenced very well against all three," Head Coach Ron Miller said. "We had a good chance at one point actually to beat Stanford. It was a very close meet. We just had a little inconsistency at the end. The meet with Notre Dame, even though the final score looked lopsided if you look at it by score, the score was 8-19, but we actually only lost by six touches. It was a very close, very hard fought meet.

Miller was pleased with the Tar Heels' performance against such talented opponents.

"The general quality of our competition was excellent," Miller said. "The majority of our meets we won 25-2 or 24-3. We pretty much dominated the competition except for the top teams that were there."

On the women's side the Tar Heels defeated Stanford in a close meet, edging out the Cardinal 14-13. Stanford was one of four top-five opponents that the women's team faced.

North Carolina also had a close match with Northwestern. The Tar Heels fell 11-16, but the match was much closer than the score suggests.

"Our sabre team went 9-0, which is a major feat against that quality of a team," Miller said. "If foil and epee had picked up the same bouts they got the first time we fenced them earlier in the year we would have beat them. We had seven 5-4 losses in the meet. Again that was a meet of touches."

Miller saw a lot in his team this weekend that he hopes will carry into the next meet.

"All in all it was an excellent weekend," Miller said. "I'd say the best thing about it was that we improved our consistency. We had a couple of meets where we started slowly and finished very strong. It provided us with a great deal of confidence going into this weekend."

The Tar Heels hope to continue their solid performance into the postseason. With one regular season meet remaining the team is focusing on the NCAA tournament competition.

"Most teams qualify one or two [fencers], the maximum number is four, and we're pretty much on track to do that," Miller said. "We were able to bolster our starters but also allow our depth fencers to have enough bouts to qualify."

Especially important for the Tar Heels is the upcoming competition where they will face one of their biggest rivals, Duke, who is hosting the dual meets on Friday and Saturday. Going into the meets the men's team is 24-9, and the women's team is 21-9. This weekend's competition will be a change from that at Northwestern.

"The biggest difference this weekend is that we don't have very strong teams and average to weaker teams," Miller said. "Instead everyone's pretty much the same level. No one team is weak, no one team is dominant, it really will depend on their courage and how hard they fight."