#10 Fencing Goes 5-0 at Philadelphia Invitational; Owls Defeat Two Top-10 Teams

Saturday, January 24

Philadelphia, Pa.

All Day

Temple University

Philadelphia Invitational (Cornell, Northwestern, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Duke)

Temple Fencing at the Philadelphia Invitational

#10 Fencing Goes 5-0 at Philadelphia Invitational; Owls Defeat Two Top-10 Teams

1.24.15 | Women's Fencing

PHILADELPHIA - The day could not have been scripted better for #10 Temple fencing, as the Owls (10-4) went undefeated at the Philadelphia Invitational hosted by Penn. Temple's wins included thrilling, 14-13 victories over both host and #6 Penn as well as #9 Northwestern and Duke.

The tone of the day was set early when the Owls earned a 14-13 over Duke, the top team receiving votes outside of the top 10. All three weapons won against the Blue Devils, led by the foil squad with a record of 7-2.

Next up for Temple was #9 Northwestern, which turned into another extremely close match. The foil and sabre squads both won 5-4, while epee took four of nine which was enough for a second-straight 14-13 win.

The third battle of the day was against Cornell, and the Owls won that one by a score of 16-11. The sabre and epee squads both earned 6-3 wins against the Big Red, currently the second team receiving votes outside of the top 10.

After a break for lunch, Temple came out and kept the momentum going with a thrilling win over #6 Penn, 14-13. It came down to the final two epee bouts, with the Owls needing to win one, and sophomore Alexandra Keft came through. Keft battled through a lingering shoulder injury all day long, knowing her team needed her to fence due to other injuries on the squad.

"It feels pretty great (to do so well today)," said Keft. "I took anti-inflammatory drugs before we got started, and then you really just have to put it out of your mind. You have to put the will to win first. I also changed tactics, putting my arm down when usually it's up, and it worked well."

In their final dual of the day, Temple beat Johns Hopkins by a score of 20-7, led by the sabre squad with an 8-1 win.

"It was a stressful day, but a very good kind of stress," said Temple head coach Nikki Franke. "All we ask the girls to do is come and to listen and really try their best and be there for each other, and that really happened today. No one gave up. Everyone fought for every touch, and that's how you win these close matches. They were very mentally tough today and that has been improving as the season has progressed."

Keft agreed with Franke that the support of teammates for each other was invaluable.

"Everybody worked so hard today," she said. "We were all behind each other. I don't think we've ever cheered so hard before and that was really great to see. We won a lot of our 4-4 bouts that we were losing last week, so that's nice that we were able to get the close ones today."

The foil squad's top finisher on the day was freshman Becca Stanford with an impressive record of 8-2. Stanford was undefeated with a 3-0 record in the win against #6 Penn. For sabre, many of the day's highlights came from junior Gloria Aguilar who finished at 10-4 overall. She was 3-0 against Cornell and Johns Hopkins, and finished 2-1 against #6 Penn.

Temple's schedule remains tough next weekend, as the Owls head west for the Northwestern Duals. Temple will face a total of 12 teams over the two-day meet on Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

Team Results
Temple 14, Duke 13
Temple 14, Northwestern 13
Temple 16, Cornell 11
Temple 14, Penn 13
Temple 20, Johns Hopkins 7

Individual Results
Foil
Becca Stanford, 8-2
Demi Antipas, 6-4
Fatima Largaespada, 5-4
Miranda Litzinger, 5-3
Mariah Slagle, 2-3
Kristen Kemnitzer, 1-2

Epee
Alexandra Keft, 10-5
Safa Ibrahim, 9-6
Jessica Hall, 6-9

Sabre
Gloria Aguilar, 10-4
Lauren Rangel-Friedman, 6-6
Victoria Suber, 6-7
Olivia Wynn, 4-2