University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Brandeis Dual Meets
First Dual Meets Bring Success And Frustration For Tar Heels
December 6, 2011 | Fencing
Dec. 6, 2011
The North Carolina men's and women's fencing squads dove into intercollegiate dual meet competition over the weekend, facing a strong slate of teams at Penn State on Saturday and at Brandeis in Waltham, Mass., on Sunday. On both days, the Tar Heels had plenty of successes, but also faced challenges.
Following those competitions, UNC won't be back in action for more than a month. Next up on the Tar Heels' schedule is the North American Cup Jan. 13-16 in Portland, Ore. Carolina's next dual meets are Jan. 21 at the University of Pennsylvania (men) and Jan. 22 at Temple (women).
Read on for UNC coach Ron Miller's commentary on the weekend:
Fencing Dual Meets at Penn State and Brandeis: Dec. 6, 2011
By UNC coach Ron Miller
The opening weekend of intercollegiate dual meet fencing competition for the Carolina team was a mixture of excellent fencing, success, frustration, lack of consistent focus and improvement. We had a lot to learn about how our weapon squads and several individuals would make the adjustment from individual tournaments back to team competition.
Most of our questions were answered, but a few remain, and we have some new ones. Princeton, Harvard, Penn State are among the nation's most elite teams, and all teams at both sites are nationally competitive. The men's record of six wins and four losses could easily have been eight and two a little later in the season. The women earned three wins and sustained eight losses. Our most experienced women's foil captain (Jenna Rodrigues) was unable to attend, and our women's sabre co-captain (Sara Leung) had to sit out the last three meets after receiving a possible concussion. Another sabre starter and co-captain (Gladys Manzur) suffered a knee injury that limited her game. Our lack of experience (no returning starters) in women's foil was a predictable weakness, especially the first day at PSU, but they fought their way through every meet gaining experience and confidence that helped in all three wins.
The bright side of our women's competition was the fencing of our more experienced women's epee and sabre squads. Both sabre and epee were in every meet. Freshman starters Gill Litynski (23/8) in sabre and Lidea Shahidi (20/10) in epee were the top performers for the women's team. In women's sabre Sara Leung, before her injury, had 13 wins and Gladys Manzur 11. Second year walk-on Aislinn Kloss did an outstanding job filling in for Sara, finishing with a 50% record that helped keep her squad competitive through the remainder of the competitions. Kacie Albert (17-13,) fellow starter Allie Mead with 14 wins and co-captain Shannon Beamon, who was undefeated off the bench, helped the epee squad to the best squad record over both days of competition.
Co-Captain Heather Van Wallendael set the pace for the improvement of the women's foil squad. She improved from 2/13 the first day to 8/10 the second day to lead her squad back into contention. Freshman Wynton Wong also added seven important wins. Most importantly for the team's future this season, all the women showed the desire and ability to fight through adversity and to improve throughout the weekend.
The more experienced men's team did what they needed to in order to win, even when they were not at their best. Especially the first day, our men's foil squad (with great pre-season results) could not find their best game. They are one of the best foil squads in the nation, but they collectively did not have one squad victory the first day. I would trust my life to the possibility that it will not happen again this season. It was just one of those days. In spite of their frustration, they were able to win key bouts that contributed strongly to wins against Vassar and NYU in particular. The second day they came roaring back with a 26/19 record, much improved over the 14/31 from Saturday. They also had three impressive squad wins against BC, MIT and Brandeis. Senior Kevin Nadeau was 15/11, Joe Alter was 14/12 and freshman Harry Adams had 9 important wins.
Men's epee was a little inconsistent on Saturday, but was dominant on Sunday. Their seven squad wins was the best of any weapon, men or women. They went 27/18 on the second day (sabre was 27/18 the first day) to help secure four team wins. Sophomore transfer Hayden Haberle went 14/12, while co-captains Daniel Giles and Max Tice-Lewis also had 14 wins. Freshman Parker Williams had three big wins from the bench
The men's sabre squad was the most consistent over both days. They had six squad wins and finished 50/40 for the most squad bouts won. They were led by a trio of sophomore starters: Sam Austin (18/10), Nate Wiecha (17-13) and Jon Blake (15/13.) oth the men and women had one bad meet; in fact, the same one. The word FLAT would be an understatement. The second meet of the first day was against Sacred Heart, a very strong team this season. The only good thing about that meet was that it helped everyone wake up and put things back on track. We also get a rematch in January at Penn. I can't wait!
Looking at the big picture, we did better than we usually do against this level of competition this early in the season. We need to continue to improve our women's foil squad. We need to make better and quicker adjustments to regional differences in officiating, especially in sabre. We need to learn to close bouts more efficiently. Our record, especially for the men in bouts decided by only one touch was much weaker than at any point last season. We showed we fence better against the best teams and individuals. We need to carry the same discipline, focus and energy into all our bouts.
This will be one of our best teams ever! We will improve with every weekend of competition.
Players Mentioned
