We have received the team scores for the six men's bouts today in the quadrangular meet at Duke – and co-#1 Notre Dame remains unbeaten (20-0), but just barely. The Irish opened the day with a 16-11 win over co-#10 North Carolina but then squeaked by the other #10-ranked team, the host Blue Devils, in a 14-13 match (ND closed the day with a 21-6 win over Johns Hopkins).
The showdown between in-state rivals went to Duke, which posted a 17-10 win over UNC and also downed Hopkins (19-8). UNC registered a three-point win in the day's other match, vs. JHU.
Duke actually outscored Notre Dame in two weapons (5-4 in foil and sabre), but the Irish averted the upset thanks to a 6-3 edge in epee. Duke's win over UNC included decisive 7-2 margins in foil and epee (UNC won sabre, 6-3).
As with other recent Duke tournaments, ceremonial cups were presented to the respective weapon units that posted the top won-loss records: Notre Dame's foil squad (19-8), the Duke epee group (18-9) and UNC sabre contingent (17-10).
The ND foilists totaled three more wins than Duke (16; JHU had 12 foil wins, UNC 7) while the Duke epeeists claimed their cup after outdistancing ND's epeeists by two wins (16; UNC won 12 epee bouts, JHU 8). The UNC sabreists finished the day with one more win that the Irish (16, followed by Duke with 15 and Hopkins with 6).
More on these bouts later tonight on the blog.
DUKE QUADRANGULAR (men's final results)
co-#1 Notre Dame 14 (F4, E6, S4), co-#10 Duke 13 (F5, E3, S5)
co-#1 Notre Dame 16 (F7, E4, S5), co-#10 North Carolina 11 (F2, E5, S4)
co-#1 Notre Dame 21 (F8, E6, S7), Johns Hopkins 6 (F1, E3, S2)
co-#10 Duke 17 (F7, E7, S3), co-#10 North Carolina 10 (F2, E2, S6)
co-#10 Duke 19 (F4, E8, S7), Johns Hopkins 8 (F5, E1, S2)
co-#10 North Carolina 15 (F3, E5, S7), Johns Hopkins 12 (F6, E4, S2)