University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Fencing Set For ACC Championships
February 27, 2016 | Fencing
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The UNC men's and women's fencing teams will compete this weekend in the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, to be held at Notre Dame's Castellan Family Fencing Center in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse.
The action gets underway on Saturday with the men's individual competition, which will run from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., the women's team competition will begin.
On Sunday the events will flip, with the women's individual beginning at 8 a.m., followed by the men's team competition at 1:30 p.m.
The 2015 Championship, hosted by UNC in Chapel Hill, marked the return of fencing as an ACC-sponsored sport for the firs time since 1980. The ACC held men's fencing championships from 1971 through 1980. During that time, six league institutions sponsored the sport: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, and Virginia. The Tar Heels, under current head coach Ron Miller, won eight of the 10 titles during the decade, with Clemson and Maryland winning the other two championships. There are now four ACC schools that sponsor varsity fencing: UNC, Duke, Boston College and Notre Dame.
Last year marked the first-ever ACC women's fencing competition. The Tar Heels finished third in the team event, and senior Gillian Litynski won the women's sabre championship.
Notre Dame is the defending champion for both the men's and women's team titles and is the highest ranked team in this year's field. On the men's side, UND is No. 2 and Duke is No. 9 in the CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll, which includes 10 teams. UNC and Boston College are among schools receiving votes. On the women's side, Notre Dame is ranked No. 2 with UNC, Duke and Boston College all receiving votes.
For the first time, the championship will be carried live by ESPN3. Coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. on both days, with the individual championship bouts followed by the team competitions.
Fans are encouraged to follow @ACCFencing on Twitter and use the official hashtag, #ACCFencing, for news and updates during the championship.
The Tar Heels, who flew to Chicago on Friday in preparation for this weekend's competition, are coming off a successful weekend at the Philadelphia Invitational. Both the men and women went 3-2 overall, and both gave Miller reasons to be optimistic heading into ACCs.
“Based on what happened (last weekend), I'm hopeful we'll continue a trend of much more consistency,” he said. “Some of the weapons had outstanding performances, women's sabre in particular. Having three 9-0 meets in a row was nice, and then they also beat Penn. I was very pleased with that squad in general. Really, all the women's weapon squads were consistent. The biggest thing is that we were trying to augment our women's foil to pick up an extra fencer for ACCs and for Regionals, and Alicia Chen was able to get enough bouts to qualify for both ACCs and Regionals. She went 7-1 on the weekend.
“The biggest issue for the men right now is that men's foil showed a considerable amount of improvement. They showed they're a good squad. The other squads showed consistency, with epee winning all five and sabre doing just about as well.”
For this weekend's event, four fencers will compete in each weapon. Those represending UNC at the ACC Championships are:
Men
Foil: Jake Bernstein (captain), Harry Adams, Ezra Baeli-Wang and Alexander Burte
Sabre: Theophilus Onigbinde (captain), Matthew Garrelick, Connor Ritchey and Turner Wibbelsman
Epee: Collins Allison (captain), Michael Gopman Slonim, Matthew Shlimak and Jason Xu
Women
Foil: Amanda Lalezarian (captain), Gabrielle D'Astoli, Alicia Chen and Sydney Persing
Sabre: Sarah Hanvy (captain), Noa Allen, Meredith Bozentka and Caitlin Gallant
Epee: Samantha Galina (captain), Sara Moreno, Erin O'Neill and Beni Mathieu
Men
SCHEDULE
Saturday, February 27
Men's Individual Tournament
8 a.m. – Foil
8 a.m. – Epee
8 a.m. – Sabre
12 p.m. – Semifinal Bouts
12:30 p.m. – Championship Bouts
Women's Team Tournament
1:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. Boston College 1:30 p.m. - Duke v. North Carolina 2:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. North Carolina 2:30 p.m. - Duke v. Boston College 3:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. Duke 3:30 p.m. - North Carolina v. Boston College 4:30 p.m. – Awards
Sunday, February 28
Women's Individual Tournament
8 a.m. – Foil
8 a.m. – Epee
8 a.m. – Sabre
12 p.m. – Semifinal Bouts
12:30 p.m. – Championship Bouts
Men's Team Tournament
1:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. Boston College 1:30 p.m. - Duke v. North Carolina 2:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. North Carolina 2:30 p.m. - Duke v. Boston College 3:30 p.m. - Notre Dame v. Duke 3:30 p.m. - North Carolina v. Boston College 4:30 p.m. – Awards
