Here are some details from today's three women's matches held at Duke (note that Northwestern will be bouting tomorrow at the Notre Dame Duals, with key matches vs. West Region teams Stanford, Air Force and UC San Diego):
• Three different Northwestern fencers each won five bouts on Saturday, in the team's victories over #10 Duke (16-11) and North Carolina (20-7). Three-time foil All-American Samantha Nemecek went 5-1 in those matches, while epee sisters Christa (5-0) and Kaylee (5-1) French combined for a 10-1 record (both French sisters have competed in the NCAAs) ... Duke freshman phenom Becca Ward won all six of her sabre bouts, in the action versus Northwestern and UNC (a 16-11 team win). Ward allowed only six total touches in her bouts, with two shutouts and three 1-0 wins (no opponent totaled more than three touches vs. her during the day's action).
• The top-10 showdown between Northwestern and Duke saw the Wildcats win foil (6-3) and epee (7-2), while Ward's three wins led the Blue Devils to a 6-3 margin in sabre ... Nemecek's only loss of the day came versus Allison Putterman (1-5) while Davynn Patterson added a 2-0 record for the NU foil squad ... Christa French (2-0) and fellow All-American Joanna Niklinska (2-1) each had a pair of epee wins vs. Duke, with Niklinska's loss coming 4-5 vs. Nicole Bloom (Kaylee French's only loss was 4-5, vs. sub Erin Pytel).
• During the in-state matchup, Duke won foil and sabre (both 6-3) while UNC posted a 5-4 edge in epee ... four Blue Devils fencers – Ward, fellow sabreist Jessica Hancock, foilist Dana Rosen and epeeist Christine Abruzzin – all went 3-0 in the win over the Tar Heels, while foilist Putterman and epeeist Melissa Litschi each were 2-1 ... UNC foilist May-Lynne Chen-Contino (a 2007 NCAA Tournament entrant) won only once vs. Duke, dropping a 2-5 bout to Putterman while losing a 2-4 defensive battle against Rosen ... UNC two-time NCAA participant Jennifer Sawicki also lost twice against Duke (vs. Ward and Hancock, both 1-5) ... epeeist Jenny Kim (2-1) was the only UNC fencer with multiple wins in the Duke match.
• Northwestern swept the foil and epee bouts versus UNC, which rode a 3-0 effort from Sawlicki to win the sabre competition (7-2) ... Chen-Cortino wrapped up her disappointing 1-5 day with losses to Patterson (2-5), Camille Provencal-Dayle (1-5) and Nemecek (1-5) ... both French sisters went 3-0 vs. UNC, while Niklinska was 2-0 and Megan Ross capped the sweep.