The 4th-ranked Columbia-Barnard women's fencing team continued its strong weekend during the morning bouts at the NYU Duals, winning all four of their matches – highlighted by a 14-13 battle with #2 Notre Dame and a 15-12 win over #3 Ohio State. There were no other upsets (based on the national polls) in the men's or women's competition, with two rounds still remaining at NYU.
The C-B women avenged their only loss from Saturday's bouting at the St. John's Invitational, as the Lions shook off the earlier 18-9 loss to ND to edge the Irish women by a single bout (adding to the recent history of 14-13 thrillers between ND and Columbia, in both men's and women's fencing).
All three weapons in the ND-CB showdown produced one-point margins (5-4), with the Lions winning foil and sabre while the Irish had the slim edge in epee.
A quick perusal of the scoresheets suggests than the Lions surged past the Irish by sweeping the final three epee bouts (despite losing five of the first six), with clutch wins from Tess Finkel (4-3 over Ewa Nelip), Martina Urbanowicz (5-2 vs. Courtney Hurley) and Neely Brandfield-Harvey (5-4, vs. fellow Texas native Kelley Hurley).
Foilist Nicole Ross (3rd-place at '08 NCAAs) and sabreist Daria Schneider ('07 NCAA champ/did not fence collegiately in '08 due to Olympic qualification) both went 3-0 versus Notre Dame, accounting for nearly half of their team's victories in the tight battle. Ross closed the foil bouting with a 5-2 win over three-time All-American Adrienne Nott ('07 NCAA runner-up, 4th in '08, 6th in '06) while Schneider capped the sabre competition by edging Sarah Borrman, 5-4 (in a matchup of the past two NCAA champions). The Lions actually won the final two foil bouts, to claim that weapon by one point.
The sabre squad (7-2) led the way in the C-B women's victory over OSU.
CollegeFencing360.com plans to do a comparative breakdown of the Penn State, Notre Dame and Columbia-Barnard women's teams – as each squad is stacked with world-class talent.
The co-#1 Notre Dame men reprised two of their Saturday wins, by again beating #4 Columbia (15-12; earlier 17-10) and #9 St. John's (19-8; 14-13). The #3 Ohio state men also repeated their wins over those teams (17-10 vs. SJU on both days; 17-10 vs. Columbia at NYU, 18-9 at SJU).
In Sunday's afternoon bouting, the Columbia will be looking to avenge Saturday's loss to St. John's (9-18) while the C-B women will be aiming for a second straight win over the Red Storm (20-7 on Saturday).
The ND women completed a sweep of St. John's (22-5 at NYU, 18-9 at SJU), as did the OSU women (18-9 at NYU, 14-11 at SJU).
Ohio State All-America sabreist Sergey Smirnov has yet to fence this weekend while former OSU epee standout Mykhaylo Mazur now is fencing for Wayne State (although he still is listed on Ohio State's online roster). Mazur and Slava Zingerman – the two-time defending NCAA champion – should prove to be one of the nation's top men's epee duos this year.
NYU Duals (rounds 1-4, two rounds remain)
Men's Scores
#1 Notre Dame 15 (F7, E3, S5), #4 Columbia 12 (F2, E6, S4)
#1 Notre Dame 19 (F8, E5, S6), #9 St. John's 8 (F1, E4, S3)
#1 Notre Dame 18 (F3, E8, S8), Yale 8 (F6, E1, S1)
#1 Notre Dame 22 (F8, E7, S7), Stevens Tech 5 (F1, E2, S2)
#3 Ohio State 17 (F7, E4, S6), #4 Columbia 10 (F2, E5, S3)
#3 Ohio State 17 (F7, E4, S6), #9 St. John's 10 (F2, E5, S3)
#3 Ohio State 23 (F7, E8, S8), Stevens Tech 4 (F2, E1, S1)
#4 Columbia 18 (F6, E5, S7), Wayne State 9 (F3, E4, S2)
#4 Columbia 18 (F4, E8, S6), Stevens Tech 9 (F5, E1, S3)
#9 St. John's 14 (F2, E4, S8), Wayne State 13 (F7, E5, S1)
#9 St. John's 16 (F2, E6, S8), NYU 11 (F7, E3, S1)
Yale 16 (F6, E4, S6), Wayne State 11 (F3, E5, S3)
Yale 15 (F7, E5, S3), Stevens Tech 12 (F2, E4, S6)
Women's Scores
#4 Columbia-Barnard 14 (5F, 4E, 5S), #2 Notre Dame 13 (4F, 5E, 4S)
#2 Notre Dame 18 (F4, E7, S7), #6 Northwestern 9 (F5, E2, S2)
#2 Notre Dame 22 (F8, E8, S6), St. John's 5 (F1, E1, S3)
#2 Notre Dame 23 (F7, E8, S8), Yale 4 (F2, E1, S1)
#4 Columbia-Barnard 15 (F3, E5, S7), #3 Ohio State 12 (F6, E4, S2)
#3 Ohio State 15 (F6, E1, S8), #6 Northwestern 12 (F3, E8, S1)
#3 Ohio State 18 (F8, E4, S6), St. John's 9 (F1, E5, S3)
#4 Columbia-Barnard 16 (F5, E5, S6), #6 Northwestern 11 (F4, E4, S3)
#4 Columbia-Barnard 26 (F9, E8, S9), Wayne State 1 (F0, E1, S0)
#6 Northwestern 18 (F5, E8, S5), Yale 9 (F4, E1, S4)
St. John's 26 (F8, E9, S9), Wayne State 1 (F1, E0, S0)
Yale 25 (F9, E7, S9), Wayne State 2 (F0, E2, S0)