Note – CollegeFencing360 plans to tweet every score from Sunday's bouts involving ND and PSU (cf360updates) ... stay-tuned!
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
The latest installment of the Penn State vs. Notre Dame college fencing rivalry will take center stage on Sunday at Ohio State's French Fieldhouse. Notre Dame holds a tenuous six-point lead on Penn State in the team standings, with each team slated for 54 bouts on Sunday (nine each for the two entrants per team in each weapon).
One wrinkle to the drama is the fact that the Notre Dame foilists are split in separate groups ... in fact, ND freshman Rachel Beck actually is fencing in the same group with PSU teammates Doris Willette and Olga Ostatnigrosh.
Sabre fencers to keep an eye on include the opposing freshmen (ND's Lian Osier and PSU's Nicole Glon), as this is the weapon where the Irish most likely could add to their lead, based on Saturday's standings and Sunday's matchups.
In foil, both teams are led by a senior veteran (PSU's Doris Willette and ND's Hayley Reese met in the 2009 NCAA final) – with Penn State maybe having a slight edge due to sophomore Olga Ostatnigrosh's experience fencing in the 2010 NCAAs.
Notre Dame epeeist Ewa Nelip may be the deciding factor, as the two-time NCAA semifinalist managed only a 6-8 record on Saturday (dropping her to 16th place).
Assuming a hypothetical that all of Sunday's ND-PSU bouts will go to the fencers holding a higher placement after Saturday's bouts, here's how each weapon would play out:
• W-SABRE – Notre Dame would go 14-4 (Hassett 8, Osier 6) and Penn State 8-10 (Aksamit 7, Glon 1) ... a +6 pickup for ND
• W-FOIL – Notre Dame would go 7-11 (Reese 4, Beck 3) and Penn State 12-6 (Willette 9, Ostatnigrosh 3) ... a +5 pickup for PSU
• W-EPEE – Notre Dame would go 13-5 (Hurley 9, Nelop 4) and Penn State 15-3 (Guzzi 8, Vongries 7) ... a +2 pickup for PSU
... So, if all of Sunday's ND-PSU bouts were to go to the fencers currently higher in the standings – Penn State would close the gap one point but Notre Dame would hold on for a 5-point victory.
NOTRE DAME & PENN STATE SUNDAY BOUTS ...
WOMEN'S SABRE
Round 5 (9:30 a.m.) – ND's Eileen Hassett (4th) & Lian Osier (9th) vs. Duke's Becca Ward (5th), Princeton's Eliza Stone (2nd) & Diamond Wheeler (14th) ... PSU's Monica Aksamit (8th) & Nicole Glon (20th) vs. Temple's Kamali Thompson (13th), Penn's Dominika Franciskowicz (11th) & Danielle Kamis (17th)
Round 6 (10:30 a.m.) – ND's Eileen Hassett & Lian Osier vs. Brown's Caitlin Taylor (21st), SJU's Dagmara Wozniak (10th) & Anna Limbach (6th) ... PSU's Monica Aksamit & Nicole Glon vs. Hunter's Stella Shifrin (18th), Columbia's Samantha Roberts (7th) & Loweye Diedro (15th)
Round 7 (11:30 a.m.) – ND's Eileen Hassett & Lian Osier vs. Temple's Kamali Thompson (13th), Penn's Dominika Franciskowicz (11th) & Danielle Kamis (17th) ... PSU's Monica Aksamit & Nicole Glon vs. Air Force's Heather Nelson (23rd), OSU's Margarita Tschomakova (3rd) & Alison Miller (16th)
WOMEN'S FOIL
Round 5 (9:30 a.m.) – ND's Hayley Reese (11th) vs. Stanford's Meaghan Conway (23rd), Harvard's Kathy Chou (15th) & Alex Kiefer (2nd) ... ND's Rachel Beck (20th) & PSU teammates Doris Willette (1st)/Olga Ostatnigrosh (19th) vs. Columbia's D'Meca Homer (15th), Brown's Kathryn Hawrot (18th) & Avery Nackman (22nd).
Round 6 (approx. 10:30 a.m.) – ND's Hayley Reese vs. UNC's Katie Williamson (16th), Temple's Alyssa Lomuscio (5th) & Mikyala Varadi (21st) ... ND's Rachel Beck & PSU teammates Doris Willette/Olga Ostatnigrosh vs. UCSD's Julia Wu (24th), Cornell's Christine McIntosh (10th) & April Whitney (13th).
Round 7 (approx.11:30 a.m.) – ND's Hayley Reese vs. Ohio State's Oksana Dmytruk (12th), St. John's Evgeniya Kirpicheva (3rd) & Irina Koroleva (6th) ... ND's Rachel Beck & PSU teammates Doriss Willette/Olga Ostatnigrosh vs. Stanford's Meaghan Conway (23rd), Harvard's Kathy Chou (15) & Alex. Kiefer (2nd).
WOMEN'S EPEE
Round 5 (9:30 a.m.) – ND's Courtney Hurley (1st) & Ewa Nelip (16th) vs. Harvard's Noam Mills (2nd), Northwester's Dina Bazarbayeva (6) & Kate Cavanaugh (19) ... PSU's Marg Guzzi (4th) & Alyssa Vongries (8th) vs. Harvard's Felicia Sun (23rd), Ohio State's Katarzyna Dabrowa (3rd) & Caroline Plasecka (18th)
Round 6 (10:30 a.m.) – ND's Courtney Hurley & Ewa Nelip vs. Columbia's Katya English (13th), Penn's Amrit Bhinder (5th) & Gabriella Foor (24th) ... PSU's Marg Guzzi & Alyssa Vongries vs. Columbia's Lydia Kopecky (9th), SJU's Zsofia Fath (12th) & Alina Ferdman (15th)
Round 7 (11:30 a.m.) – ND's Courtney Hurley & Ewa Nelip vs. Harvard's Felicia Sun (23rd), Ohio State's Katarzyna Dabrowa (3rd) & Caroline Plasecka (18th) ... PSU's Marg Guzzi & Alyssa Vongries vs. Temple's Chantal Montrose (20th), Princeton's Phoebe Caldwell (7th) & Hannah Safford (13th)