Dec. 4, 2003

The University of North Carolina men's and women's fencing team will compete this weekend at Penn State in the Nittany Lions' opening dual meet of the season. Other teams competing include defending national champion Notre Dame, NYU, Princeton, and Rutgers University. Standard NCAA dual meets run on a format where each team has three starting fencers per weapon squad, and the starting three of one team fences the starting three of the other team making 9 bouts per weapon squad. The meet is a combination of all three weapon squads so that there are a total of 27 bouts between the three weapons. The first team to win 14 bouts wins the dual meet.

Head fencing coach Ron Miller states, "It's going to be a tough weekend and it always is with this group of kids. We are pretty well prepared this week. We have resolved some of our issues against tactics we know that some of these teams are going to be using. We scouted them very hard with film and when we were at Penn State two weeks ago at the open. We continue to have some lingering injuries; Yin Song is still out and will not be back competing on our men's epee team until January. I think we will make a very good showing. We have worked really hard the last two weeks in practice and I think the team is as prepared as they are going to be. The teams that we are going up against, with the possible exception of Notre Dame, have significant holes in at least one of their weapons. So, as long as we can attack that and get the bouts we need to have there, we have a pretty good chance against everyone. Our sabre squad should do very well and the upper level of our foil and epee should do well, so it's just a question of how well our depth can produce and that's the main thing."

The Tar Heel fencers will next see action when they host there first home dual meet in Carmichael auditorium on the weekend of January 17, 2004.