Feb. 7, 2008

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's men's and women's fencing teams will make the eight mile trip on 15-501 Friday to Durham to compete in the Duke Dual Meets. Coming off of a solid performance at the Northwestern Duals, the men's team is now 24-9, and the women's team is 21-9.

Below is the schedule for the weekend. The men's team fences on Friday, and the women's team fences on Saturday.

8 a.m. M.I.T.
9:30 a.m. Brandeis
11 a.m. Duke
1:15 p.m. Men vs. Johns Hopkins, Women vs. Temple
2:45 p.m. Air Force

TarHeelBlue.com sat down with sophomore sabre fencer Jennifer Sawicki to talk about the upcoming meet and North Carolina's success this season.

What are you looking forward to most about this weekend's competition?
"Well it will be nice not having a 14-hour bus ride, but probably the intensity of the competition since we're going to Duke, and we'll be fencing Duke and Temple also. We're looking forward to that. Those are going to be some pretty intense meets. Everyone's going to want every touch. The whole team gets to come, which is really exciting because it's so close that even the members who aren't starting and who don't usually fence will be there to watch and support. We're going to have a lot of cheering, a lot of yelling and a lot of energy."

What will you take from Northwestern to help you prepare for Duke?
"Fencing is like most sports. The better people you fence, the better you do fencing. You bring it out in each other. We have to take as hard as we worked and as much as we wanted it last weekend, and we have to take it into this weekend. Although they may be not four of the five best teams in the country, we want to beat them pretty much almost worse because of who they are."

How have you seen the team improve throughout the season?
"Overall as a team we've improved of course tactically, but mostly in our communication. We've really stepped up on how to support each other; how to pick out what we need to tell each other and the advice we need to give while on strip. It's so important that while someone is actually fencing you can help them adapt their game throughout their bout."

How do you transition from regular season to postseason competition where you fence more as an individual rather than a team?
"It gets a little bit rockier just because it's farther into the year, people are getting more involved with classes and it's warming up. It's really exciting because it's a completely new area of competition. You go from fencing the same three people on every team to suddenly singular players come out of the woodwork. You really get to focus on your own game while at the same time having to maintain the fact that we're such a close team, and you have to support your teammates who suddenly you're competing against for four spots to get to regionals. You have to compete against the people you've been helping all year long."

"What achievement by your team this season have you been most proud of?
"I'm really proud of my squad's performance last week especially, and all year long. We've worked so hard. Last weekend especially we went 9-0 against Northwestern, and we beat Stanford. We've been able to beat harder fencers. We've been able to break down their game while watching them. We'll talk about what we need to do and then actually do it. I've been really impressed with how we've done this season."

TarHeelBlue.com also sat down with senior foil fencer Joe Pipkin to discuss the meets at Duke and his thoughts on the Tar Heels' season.

What are you looking forward to most about this weekend's competition?
"Fencing Duke, I don't think there's much more to look forward to. It's the last meet of the season, the last set of dual meets, the last meet of my career really and we get to fence Duke. The number one thing to look forward to is essentially beating Duke."

What is the atmosphere like at Duke?
"It's an interesting atmosphere. It's always equally tense. I think with anything Carolina and Duke you always find a really intense rivalry. I'm pretty sure you could have a math meet, and it would be an intense rivalry as long as it was Carolina vs. Duke. It's a very sterile atmosphere they try to create. Everything's neat and orderly, but that all goes out the door once the Duke vs. Carolina meet starts. I think everybody gets into it on both sides. You get a lot of cheering. Usually the Blue Devil comes in, and there are some Duke fans there painting. I hear there might be some Carolina fans painting up this year and coming to support."

What improvements have you seen the team make throughout the season?
"In terms of being able to stay consistent over the course of the day, and making sure that you're always able to fence at your strongest and just focus on the next touch. Make sure that you keep your head in the moment, not focusing on past mistakes, referee errors or anything like that, just being able to be in the right place to be consistent over the course of the day regardless of what happens or how tired we are."

Johns Hopkins has turned into a major rival this season, and you face them again at Duke. What started this recent rivalry?
"The Johns Hopkins thing is definitely a rivalry. We hadn't lost against Johns Hopkins ever in Coach Miller's history. We hadn't lost to them until last season. It became a much more serious rivalry because it's not a streak you like having the honor of breaking. I think most of the people that lost that first meet are still here, so we always put our game faces on big time when it comes to fencing Johns Hopkins. I know nobody was pleased with our performance against them at Penn State just because we weren't really fencing all that well even more so the fact that we lost because we weren't really fencing that well. I think everybody's going to come out pumped up, sharp and ready to go for that meet."

Are there any other teams coming to Duke that you are looking forward to competing against?
"Brandeis should be a good meet. Brandeis is always an interesting meet. They have a pretty strong squad this year I think overall. Their coach is actually a Carolina alum so that's actually always kind of an interesting meet for all of us. I think Air Force is always an interesting meet. They're not necessarily one of the stronger teams that we fence, but they always have an amazing amount of energy. They always have a lot of athleticism that they bring to the table so it's always going to be one of your hardest fought meets of the day regardless of what happens."

"What achievement by your team this season have you been most proud of?
"I was really proud of the way that we came out, especially at the end of this past weekend. Our last meet was Notre Dame. People had been sick. We'd had a lot of injuries. It was a long weekend with 11 meets. That was our last meet of the weekend, and it was at 5 p.m. We'd been fencing two days in a row. Everybody was tired. Notre Dame is probably going to be the No. 1 team in the country this year. I think everybody came out, we fought hard and we had a lot of really close bouts. We had a lot of really good bouts. We managed to stay focused, keep our heads in it and still make it a good meet. I don't remember what the final meet score was. I don't think it was that great, but the final meet score wasn't real indicative of how the meet actually was. Everyone fought hard despite the injuries, despite being really tired and despite the fact that the refereeing was not the most consistent. I was just really proud to see us be able to pull together and even in a situation like that where'd it be really easy to just hang out and accept the fact that we're more or less supposed to lose to the No. 1 team. Everybody fought hard and made it a really great meet."