The stage is nearly set for a thrilling finish at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships. Ohio State likely will defeat Illinois in the women's foil semifinals, setting up an ND-OSU women's foil final, while the Irish will face Northwestern in the epee final.
CF360 has yet to confirm the point structure, but we are fairly certain that Notre Dame wins in both finals will give the Irish a winning point total, ND and OSU then would have three total weapon team titles, but the Irish also have finished second in three events while the Buckeyes would have two second-place finishes (along with 3rd/4th, in women's epee).
The needed string of events began to fall Notre Dame's way when the second-seeded Northwestern women's epee team posted a 5-2 semifinal win over #3-seeded Ohio State. Shortly thereafter, the #3-seeded ND women's foil squad pulled off the 5-3 upset of 2-ssed Northwestern in the semifinal round.
The Notre Dame women's foil team is bouting minus three-time All-American Adi Nott (who has finished 6th or higher at each of the past three NCAAs), as Nott is coming at a World Cup event this weekend. That leaves sophomore Hayley Reese (11th at '08 NCAAs) as the most battle-tested fencer to take on an Ohio State unit that includes the talented All-America duo of 2008 NCAA runner-up Oksana Dmytruk and sixth-place NCAA finisher Lindsay Knauer.
The epee final will feature two sets of sisters from the emerging fencing hotbed of Texas. Northwestern junior twins Christa and Kaylee French have combined to make three NCAA Tournament appearances, with Christa twice earning All-America honors (6th in '07, 10th in '08) while Kaylee was 14th in '07. Their teammate Joanna Niklinska is coming off a 12th-place All-America finish at the '08 NCAAs..
Notre Dame will counter with what clearly is the top three-fencer women's epee unit in all of college fencing. Junior Kelley Hurley (a 2008 Olympian) was the 2007 NCAA runner-up before winning the NCAA title in '08, two spots ahead of current ND sophomore Ewa Nelip. Hurley's younger sister, freshman Courtney Hurley, was the runner-up to her sister for the only U.S. women's epee spot in the '08 Olympics (the younger Hurley won the MFC women's epee individual title yesterday).
It all has the makings of possibly the most exciting finish in the 11-year history of the MFCs.