Yale fencing teams competed in the New York University Invitational tournament last Saturday with mixed results. While the men’s team replicated its overall record from last year with a 3–2 win, the women’s team did not fare so well with an overall score of 1–4.

The men’s team participated in five matches and defeated Stevens Tech, Wayne State and NYU. The Bulldogs lost their two matches to Ohio State and Notre

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Dame by scores of 12–15 and 8–19, respectively. The three wins all came by a large margin of victory, with Yale dispatching Wayne State, 19–8, and defeating both Stevens Tech and NYU 18–9.

“Beating NYU by a large margin was especially sweet for the junior class — we’ve been out for revenge since we lost 14–13 to NYU during our freshman year,” said Jon Holbrook ’12, captain of the men’s team. “This marks the second year in a row that we’ve solidly defeated them.”

The meet was of the standard college fencing format, with each school represented by three fencers with three different weapons, who competed in a total of 27 bouts. The school with the larger number of victories is declared the winner.

The women’s team, meanwhile, defeated WSU but fell to Notre Dame, Northwestern, NYU and Ohio State.

“I think we’re kind of an inexperienced team because we have very few recruits and very few experienced fencers,” said Madeline Oliver ’13, captain of the women’s fencing team. “Over the next week we’re going to work out the kinks and build up the team spirit for Ivy.”

The Elis are now 4–6 overall after they went 3–2 at the Brandeis Invitational in December.

The fencing season extends through the end of March. The teams will go on to face Sacred Heart and Drew University in matches hosted at Yale this Saturday and will also host Vassar on Monday. The teams will then compete in matches against other schools in the Ivy League, followed by the NCAA regional qualifiers.

The men’s team in particular is eagerly anticipating the Ivy League Championships and believes that it has a strong shot at the title this year, said Holbrook. The Bulldogs came close to winning the title last year, only to be defeated by one point in a match against Princeton last February.