Temple University Athletics
No. 8 Fencing Defeats No.4 Northwestern; Goes 5-0 at Philadelphia Invitational
1.21.12 | Women's Fencing
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The No. 8 Temple Owls defeated No. 4 Northwestern and went a perfect 5-0 at the 2012 Philadelphia Invitational held at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. The team was led by the epee squad, which went undefeated on the day.
The day started with a 21-6 victory over Cornell. The second round saw the Owls victorious by an identical 21-6 score over Fairleigh Dickinson. Round three was a rematch against Sacred Heart, who Temple faced last month at Penn State. Improving on that result by a bout, the Cherry and White recorded a 20-7 win.
After an extended lunch break and bye round, Temple faced off against No. 4 Northwestern University, who entered the match sporting a 9-0 record on the season. In a meet that came down to the final match tied at 13-13, Temple ultimately prevailed 14-13, capped off with a 6-3 record from the epee squad. The day concluded with another 21-6 win, this time over Johns Hopkins.
"It was exciting to see how fired up our team was all day and the tremendous level of support that every one of our fencers was giving to each of her team mates," said asssistant coach Bradley Baker. "Looking at close bouts, having that extra edge of support can be key to pushing an athlete over the top."
Senior Kamali Thompson (8-0 in sabre) and sophomore Epiphany Georges (9-0 in foil) were both perfect on the day. Team high for wins was Jillian Bratton (12-1 in epee).
The epee squad, which recorded a perfect 5-0 record for the day, also featured sophomores Kimberly Howell (10-5), Chantal Montrose (6-4), and senior Krystal Jones (3-4).
In foil (4-1 as a squad), junior Mikayla Varadi went 8-2, sophomore Teagan Kilpatrick went 7-2, senior Alyssa Lomuscio held a 5-6 record, and fourth-year competitor Danielle Jones tallied a 4-2 mark.
In addition to Thompson, the 4-1 sabre squad included sophomore Tasia Ford (6-3), freshmen Emily Dodson (5-1), Tiki Kastor (5-5), Andrea Haley (4-1), and Lauren Rangel-Friedman (4-2).
"As coaches, we're very happy with both the results from today and all of the work put in by our team," said Baker. "This meet demonstrated that the hours we've been putting in the gym every day have really paid off. We hope that this is merely the start to a strong spring campaign, with more meets nearly every weekend over the next couple of months leading up to the NCAA Championships at the end of March. There's a lot of work left ahead of us, but these results certainly have us moving in the right direction."
No. 8 Temple (5-0) will make its way to State College, Pa. for the third time already this season on Saturday for the Penn State Multi-Meet.
