Tar Heels Learn And Improve At Penn State Invite

Saturday, January 17

State College, Pa.

8:00 AM

North Carolina

Penn State Invite

January 19, 2015 | Fencing

By: UNC Athletic Communications

The UNC men's and women's fencing squads competed at the Penn State Invite Saturday, each winning just one match on the day but picking up plenty of valuable team experience.

The Tar Heels both beat Haverford, 17-10 on the men's side and 20-7 on the women's. UNC also picked up several squad wins, topping Penn 6-3 in men's epee and 6-3 in women's sabre in addition to the team win over Haverford.

“All in all, it was a good day in a lot of ways,” UNC coach Ron Miller said. “A good day in that we got to see everybody, a good day in that the people who are just coming back got their feet wet again and a good day for several individuals.”

The top individual performances came from senior All-America Gillian Litynski, who went 10-1 in women's sabre; sophomore Amanda Lalezarian, who went 11-4 in women's foil; and freshman Matthew Shlimak, who went 7-3 in men's epee.

In men's sabre, the Tar Heels were dealt a blow when sophomore Evan Philpot was sidelined by an injury. Miller complimented the performance of sophomore Theophilus Onigbinde, who stepped in to fence the last two matches and picked up a pair of wins against Haverford. “Theo is a first year walk-on for us and did a great job of filling in for Evan,” Miller said.

Women's sabre beat Haverford 7-2 and dropped close matches to Penn State (4-5), Penn (4-5) and Columbia (3-6). “We're experimenting a lot with that lineup,” Miller said. “It was a very valuable day in that respect.”

The first competition of the spring semester saw the return of several fencers. Juniors Collins Allison and Gordon Long both studied abroad in the fall and are back this semester. Both are weapon captains – Allison in epee and Long in sabre. On the women's side, junior Kelley Hamill, a women's epee captain, is back after studying in South Africa during the fall. Senior Lidea Shahidi also has returned. She was in Chapel Hill last semester and practiced with the team but did not compete.

Next up for UNC is the Philadelphia Invitational, with the women competing this Saturday and the men on Sunday. Miller expects a challenging field, if not quite as tough as the Penn State tournament, in which all of the opponents except Haverford finished last season ranked in the top 10. However, the Tar Heels have grown used to seeing tough competition.

“We have 33 meets this season and 21 are against top-10 teams,” Miller said. “The men have fenced nine meets against top-10 teams. The women have fenced 10 of 11.

“All of our losses are to top 10 teams, and some of them were close. We knew the early part of the season, with the youth we have on the team, was going to be interesting. But they've really started to come together. On the other side of it, for our top individuals, looking toward post season, our strength of schedule is a significant assistance.”

Penn State Invite: Jan. 17, 2015

Results
Men

Columbia 24, UNC 3

Foil: CU 9-0

Sabre: CU 9-0

Epee: CU 6-3

Penn State 23, UNC 4

Foil: PSU 9-0

Sabre: PSU 9-0

Epee: PSU 5-4

UNC 17, Haverford 10

Foil: HU 5-4