• Notre Dame freshman Courtney Hurley won the MFC women's epee title, defeating Northwestern All-American Joanna Niklinska in the title bout (15-8) ... Hurley entered the tournament as the #3 seed and was #5 after her pool bouts (6-0/+22) while Niklinska improved from a #7 to #2 seed (thanks to her own 6-0 pools, with a +24).
• Eight of the top-9 finishers went unbeaten in their pool bouts: the finalists Hurley and Niklinska, plus Northwestern's Christa French (3rd; 6-0/+27) and her twin Kayley (6th; 6-0/+21), along with the ND contingent of All-Americans Ewa Nelip (5th; 6-0/+23) and Kelley Hurley (9th; 6-/+24), plus Diane Zielinski (7th; 5-0/+20) and Kim Montoya (8th; 5-0/+17) ... Ohio State's Julia Tikhonova – who earned 2007 All-America honors in foil (5th at '07 NCAAs) – had a see-saw day: she entered the tournament as the #2 seed, went only 4-2/+14 in her pools, was seeded #18 in the DE and ended up reaching the semifinal.
• Hurley's path to the title included a 15-11 win over OSU's Mary Pozydaev (#15 initital seed/#12 in DE) during the round-of-16, followed by a 15-10 quarterfinal against her ND teammate and pre-tournament favorite Nelip (#4 DE seed) and a 15-10 victory over the #1 DE seed Christa French (#5 initial seed) ... Niklinska beat Chicago's Aisling Holt (#27/#14) in the round-of-16, then topped her Northwestern teammate Kayley French (#6/#6) in a 15-11 quarterfinal bout and won 15-12 in the semifinals (vs. Tikhanova).
• Possibly the most interesting bout of the entire 2009 MFCs came in the women's epee round-of-16, when Tikhonova and Kelley Hurley (a 2008 U.S. Olympian and the '08 NCAA champ) engaged in the ultimate chessmatch – with Tikhonova ultimately advancing 1-0 in a (scheduled) 15-touch bout that went to sudden-death overtime ... the only other upset (based on DE seed) was #8 Montoya's 15-4 victory over #9 Elle Brennan (Case Western).
• Three of the semifinals went to the higher DE seed, with one slight "upset" when Hurley posted her five-point win over Nelip.
• Zielinski (#11) and Montoya (#13) both posted top-8 finishes, despite entering the tournament seeded in double digits (11th and 13th, respectively).
• The #9-#16 finishers included five who had initial seeds of 18 of higher – most notably Case's Brennan, who entered the day as the #60 seed but went 6-0/+17 in her pools (with a key 5-4 win over Tikhanova), rising to #8 for the DE (she ended up placing 10th, after the loss to Montoya) ... Chicago's Holt was a #27 pre-MFC seed, but she went 5-1/+11 in her pool (only loss was to Niklinska and jumped to a #14 seed for the DE (where she lost again to the eventual runner-up Niklinska) ... others with pre-tournament seeds in the 20s who finished among the top-16 included: Northwestern's Sara Peck (#25, 5-1/#15 in pools, #10 in DE, finished 11th after 15-6 loss to Zielinski), Michigan State's Sara Bowers (#21, 5-1/+11 in pools, #13 in DE, placed 13th after 15-7 loss to Nelip) and Cleveland State's Courtney Zemosky (#18 initial seed; placed 16th).
• There conversely were five fencers among the initial top-16 seeds who failed to finish in the top-16: OSU's Miriam Baranov (#8 seed/placed 27th), Wayne State's Emanuelle Bercea (#10/25th) and Desiree Kelly (#12/47th), Cleveland State's Brooke Snyder (#14/35th) and Lawrence's Chiara Terzuolo (#16/22nd) ... Baranov dropped to a #29 seed after the pools (3-2/+2) and was eliminated by Nelip in the round-of-32 (9-15), with her losses in the pools coming against ND's Montoya and Xavier's Nicole Tilley (both 1-5).
MFC Women's Epee Round-of-16
(1) Christa French (NW) def. (17) Elyse Gurnowski (OSU) ... 15-9
(18) Julia Tikhonova (OSU) def. (2) Kelley Hurley (ND) ... 1-0
(2) Joanna Niklinska (NW) def. (14) Aisling Holt (CHI) ... 15-5
(4) Ewa Nelip (ND) def. (13) Sara Bowers (MSU) ... 15-7
(5) Courtney Hurley (ND) def. (12) Mary Pozydaev (OSU) ... 15-11
(6) Kayley French (NW) def. (22) Courtney Zemkosky (CLEV) ... 15-7
(7) Diane Zielinski (ND) def. (7) Sara Peck (NW) ... 15-6
(9) Kim Montoya (ND) def. (8) Elle Brennan (Case) ... 15-4
Quarterfinals
(1) Christa French (NW) def. (9) Kim Montoya (ND) ... 15-8
(2) Joanna Niklinska (NW) def. (6) Kayley French (NW) ... 15-11
(5) Courtney Hurley (ND) def. (4) Ewa Nelip (ND) ... 15-10
(18) Julia Tikhonova (OSU) def. (7) Diane Zielinski (ND) ... 15-10
Semifinals
(5) Courtney Hurley (ND) def. (1) Christa French (NW) ... 15-10
(2) Joanna Niklinska (NW) def. (18) Julia Tikhonova (OSU) ... 15-12
Final
(5) Courtney Hurley (ND) def. (2) Joanna Niklinska (NW) ... 15-8
2009 MFC Women's Epee Final Top-16 Data (field of 67)
1. Courtney Hurley (Notre Dame) ... #3 initial seed/#5 pre-DE ... 6-0 in pools (+22)
2. Joanna Niklinska (Northwestern) ... #7/#2 ... 6-0 in pools (+24)
3. Christa French (NW) ... #5/#1 ... 6-0 in pools (+27)
3. Julia Tikhonova (Ohio State) ... #2/#18 ... 4-2 in pools (+14)
5. Ewa Nelip (ND) ... #1/#4 ... 6-0 in pools (+23)
6. Kayley French (NW) ... #6/#6 ... 6-0 in pools (+21)
7. Diane Zielinski (ND) ... #11/#7 ... 5-0 in pools (+20)
8. Kim Montoya (ND) ... #13/#9 ... 5-0 in pools (+17)
9. Kelley Hurley (ND) ... #4/#2 ... 6-0 in pools (+24)
10. Elle Brennan (Case) ... #60/#8 ... 5-1 in pools (+19)
11. Sara Peck (NW) ... #25/#10 ... 5-1 in pools (+17)
12. Mary Pozydaev (OSU) ... #15/#12 ... 5-1 in pools (+13)
13. Sara Bowers (Michigan St.) ... #21/#13 ... 5-1 in pools (+14)
14. Aisling Holt (Chicago) ... #27/#14 ... 4-1 in pools (+11)
15. Elyse Gurnowski (OSU) ... #9/#17 ... 4-1 in pools (+6)
16. Courtney Zemkosky (Cleveland St.) ... #18/#22 ... 4-2 (+8)