(Thanks to postings on the Penn State and Notre Dame websites, we were able to glean some details from Saturday's women's bouts ... as more details become available, namely for matches involving Ohio State and UNC, we will pass along that info.).
Saturday morning's marquee matchup pitted at the NU Duals pitted the top-ranked Penn State women versus #2 Notre Dame, with the Irish claiming the 19-8 victory. PSU was limited by the absence of freshman sabreist Monika Askamit (who is competing at a Junior World Cup), but ND used a balanced effort (seven wins in epee; six each in foil and sabre) to claim the win.
The PSU-ND women's match was tight through 11 bouts (6-5 ND lead), before the Irish won four straight for a 10-5 cushion. Penn State managed to win the next two bouts (10-7), but ND then clinched as part of a stunning eight straight victories.
Notre Dame women from each weapon – foilist Hayley Reese, epeeist Ewa Nelip and sabreist Eileen Hassett – each went 3-0 in the 19-8 win over the Nittany Lions, while PSU foilist Doris Willette and sabreist Caity Thompson both had two wins (equaling the victory total, four, from their teammates' 21 combined bouts).
All three of PSU's foilists – Willette ('07 NCAA champion; '08 Olympic team), Allison Glasser (5th at '08 NCAAs) and Anne Jackson (14th in '08) – own NCAA Tournament experience, as do ND's three-time All-American Adi Nott (6th in '06, 3rd in '07, 4th in '08) and Reese (11th in '08). Willette registered her two wins over Nott (5-3) and newcomer Radmilla Sarkisova (5-1), but she dropped a 5-3 bout to Reese.
Nott's pair of wins versus PSU came versus Glasser (5-3) and Jackson (5-0), with Reese adding wins over those fencers (5-2 vs. both) to complete her impressive sweep. Radmilla also beat Jackson (4-1) but lost a 5-1 bout to Glasser.
The ND-PSU matchup in epee featured the top-four returners in that weapon from the 2008 NCAAs, as defending champion Kelley Hurley and Ewa Nelip (3rd in '08) from Notre Dame did battle with Penn State's Anastasia Ferdman (6th in '08; 4th in '07) and Keri Byerts (5th in '08). Byerts managed a 5-2 win over Hurley, but she dropped a 5-1 bout to Nelip and also lost to Courtney Hurley (1-5). The Irish added a noteworthy sweep of Ferdman (5-0 by Nelip, 5-2 from Kelley Hurley and 5-4 by her sister).
The ND-PSU sabre bouts took on another level with the return of two-time All-Amereican Thompson ('07 NCAA runner-up; 4th in '06), who did not fence collegiately in 2008 due to Olympic qualification. Despite a 5-2 loss to Eileen Thompson (the 5th-place finisher at the '08 NCAAs), Thompson was able to beat defending champ Sarah Borrman by the same score and also topped Ashley Serrette (an '07 NCAA entrant) in a 5-3 bout. The Irish fencers swept 2008 NCAA entrant Jessica-Kim Danh (Serrette 5-3, Hassett 5-1 and Borrmann 5-2).
The Penn State women offset their first loss of the season by posting two wins on Saturday over ranked opponents (19-8 vs. #3 Ohio State, 20-7 vs. #6 Northwestern). The win over OSU featured a 7-2 PSU edge in epee (the other weapons were 5-4), while Northwestern won the foil competition vs. Penn State but was shut out in epee and lost the sabre competition 7-2.
Ohio State's Saturday bouts included an 18-9 win over Northwestern, led by the strength of its sabre (8-1) and foil teams (7-2; NU won epee, 6-3). The Buckeyes also posted a 17-10 victory over #8 Temple (seven wins in sabre, five each in foil and epee).
The Notre Dame women also topped Temple (19-8), with 7-2 edges for the Irish in epee and sabre (the Owls won foil, 5-4). Temple's roster featured five fencers with NCAA Tournament experience: foilist Melissa Parker (7th at the '08 NCAAs), epeeists Kristin Howell (9th in '08) and Grace Wu (19th in '08), and the sabre duo of Kristine Jones (18th in '07) and Christine Griffith (21st in '07, 23rd in '08).
Howell (5-1) and Wu (5-4) both registered wins over Kelley Hurley, but the other Irish epeeists picked up four key wins – with Nelip beating Howell 5-3 and Wu 5-2, while the younger Hurley sister won 5-1 over Wu amd 5-2 vs. Howell.
Notre Dame's foilists turned in a sweep of Parker (4-3 by Nott, 5-1 from Reese and 5-2 by Sarkiskova) and the ND sabreists added three wins over Temple's key veterans: Almeida (5-2) and Hassett (5-0) vs. Jones, and Serrette vs. Griffith (5-2).
PSU's Thompson finished the day 10-2 and now owns a 16-3 season record. Northwestern three-time All-America foilist Samantha Nemecek (7th in '07, 8th in '06 and '08) compiled a 9-2 record on Sunday, boosting her career mark to 370-63. Former foil standous Jessica Florendo (410) and Julia Foldi (386) are the only Northwestern fencers ever to total more career wins than Nemecek.