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Sunday's Harvard Duals (Nov. 29) to Feature Penn State & Princeton (7-team field)

The fall semester typically does not feature many key college fencing tournaments – as most of the noteworthy dual meets come in Jan. through March. That trend will chance on Sunday, Nov. 29, when the Harvard Duals will feature several of the nation's top teams and  numerous elite individual fencers. In addition to the host Crimson, the seven-team field will include defending NCAA champion Penn State and the up-and-coming Princeton squad, along with North Carolina, Vassar and Sacred Heart.


College Fencing 360 will be tracking this bonus fall event and will be posting updates on the CF360 blog, the Twitter feed and the free text-message updates.


Here's Sunday schedule for the Harvard Duals: 

Round 1 (10:00 a.m.)
Penn State vs. NYU ... Harvard vs. Sacred Heart ... North Carolina vs. Princeton

Round 2 (11:00 a.m.)
Penn State vs. North Carolina ... Princeton vs. NYU ... Vassar vs. Harvard

Round 3 (12 p.m.)
Penn State vs. Harvard ... Sacred Heart vs. North Carolina ... Vassar vs.NYU 

Round 4 (1:30 p.m.)
Penn State vs. Princeton ... Harvard vs. North Carolina ... Vassar vs.Sacred Heart

Round 5 (2:30 p.m.)
Penn State vs. Sacred Heart ... North Carolina vs. NYU ... Vassar vs.Princeton

Round 6 (3:30 p.m.)
Harvard vs. NYU ... Princeton vs. Sacred Heart ... Vassar vs.North Carolina

Round 7 (4:30 p.m.)
Harvard vs. Princeton ... NYU vs. Sacred Heart ... Vassar vs. Penn State

Nov 29, 2009 3:22 AM

Penn State Open Recap #4 - Men's Sabre

By Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)

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Notre Dame junior Avery Zuck (left) emerged from the pool rounds at the Penn State Open as the top seed and went on to post four more  wins to win the title.


Two fencers currently listed in the top-10 of the USFA national men's sabre rankings – Notre Dame junior All-American Avery Zuck (Beaverton, Ore.) and Harvard sophomore Valentin Staller (Old Field, N.Y.) – met in the men's sabre final bout at the recent Penn State Open (Nov. 22), with Zuck posting the 15-10 victory. Unlike in the earlier women's events – when several of the top seeds failed to reach the semifinals or title bouts – both of the top-two seeds advanced all the way through the direct-elimination, as Zuck had claimed the #1 seed (42-fencer field) following his strong showing in the pool bouts, while Staller was the #2.


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Avery Zuck (pictured on the right of this photo) narrowly missed the NCAA semifinals eight months earlier (also at Penn State), finishing 5th ('09 NCAAs photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360).

Nov 28, 2009 11:34 AM

Penn State Open Recap #3 - Women's Epee

By Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)

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PSU senior Anastasia Ferdman (left) won the Penn State Open women's epee title for the second time


A familiar face finished atop Saturday's women's epee competition at Penn State's annual Max Garret Open, as PSU senior Anastasia Ferdman (Maalot, Israel) won the event for the second time in her career (also '07). Ferdman – who eight months earlier had won the NCAA women's epee title (also on the Penn State campus) – finished in the top-5 at the Penn State Open in all four seasons of her career (4th in '06; 5th in '08).


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Israel natives Anastasia Ferdman (right) and Noam Mills (left) – who met in the 2009 NCAA title bout (pictured) – faced off again during last weekend's Penn State Open semifinals (photo by Pete LaFleyr/CF360).


Ferdman faced a fellow senior, Temple two-time All-American Kristin Howell (San Antonio, Texas), in the title matchup and survived a tight bout that ended 15-14. Earlier in the day, Ferdman had emerged from the pool round as the #4 seed heading into the direct-elimination. She then defeated the #13 seed, Northwestern senior Joanna Niklinska (Grander, Ind.) in the round-of-16 (15-6) before topping another Wildcats senior, three-time All-American Christa French (#5 seed; Southlake, Texas) in a 15-9 quarterfinal. Ferdman – likewise a three-time All-American (4th at '07 NCAAs; 6th in '08) – ended up facing three fellow All-Americans in her four DE bouts, with the semifinals producing another thrilling 15-14 bout. That bout came versus the top seed, Harvard sophomore and fellow Israeli Noam Mills (Kfar Saba, Israel), who also had faced Ferdman in the 2009 NCAA final (15-9).

Nov 23, 2009 5:40 PM

Penn State Open Recap #2 - Women's Foil

By Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)


Saturday's women's foil title bout at the Penn State Max Garret Open featured a rematch of the final in the 2009 NCAAs (also held at PSU) – with Penn State senior Doris Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) again besting Notre Dame junior Hayley Reese (Crestwood, Ky.), 15-6.

  

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Penn State senior (jr.-eligibility) Doris Willette (left) repeated as the women's foil champion at the Penn State Open.


Willette – a two-time NCAA champion (also '07) and member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team – earned the #4 seed after the pool bouts (56-fencer field) and followed with a close win over Ohio State sophomore Allison Henvick (San Francisco, Calif.), in the direct-elimination (15-12; round-of-16). Her path to the title also included a 15-10 quarterfinal vs. Temple freshman Mikayla Varadi (Beaverton, Ore.) and a dominating win (15-1) over Ohio State junior Oksana Dmytruk (Kiev, Ukraine), who was the 2007 NCAA runner-up and placed 3rd at the '08 NCAAs. Willette then went on to defeat Reese and win the Penn State Open for the second straight year.

Nov 22, 2009 1:20 PM

Penn State Open Recap #1 - Women's Sabre

By Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)


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Notre Dame's Sarah Borrmann (left) improved on her 5th-place finish from the 2008 Penn State Open.


Notre Dame junior Sarah Borrmann (Beaverton, Ore.) – the 2008 NCAA runner-up (13th in '09) – won the women's sabre competition on Saturday (Nov. 21) at Penn State's annual Max Garret Open. Borrmann defeated Harvard sophomore Caroline Vloka (the '09 NCAA runner-up) in a 15-11 title bout that saw the #4 seed beat the #3.


After advancing through the pool rounds in the 45-fencer field, Borrmann was the #4 seed in the direct elimination and posted a 15-9 win over the #13 seed, Ohio State sophomore Margarita Tschomakova (Bonn, Germany), in the round-of-16. Tschomakova earned All-America honors as a freshman, after placing 9th at the 2009 NCAAs. Borrmann went on to register a 15-8 quarterfinal win over 12th-seeded Penn State freshman Jessica Russo (Wayne, Pa.) before knocking off the #8 seed, Princeton freshman Joanna Cichomski (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), in a 15-12 semifinal. Borrmann placed 23rd at the 2007 Penn State Open and finished 5th at the event one year ago ('08).

Nov 22, 2009 7:59 AM

    editor@collegefencing360.com