Three Temple Fencers Record Impressive Finishes at November North American Cup

Friday, November 7

Louisville, Ky.

All Day

Temple University

November NAC (Jr.)

Freshman Safa Ibrahim placed 2nd in junior women's epee out of 180 competitors

Three Temple Fencers Record Impressive Finishes at November North American Cup

11.8.14 | Women's Fencing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Three fencers from Temple's nationally ranked team, Safa Ibrahim, Alexandra Keft and Becca Stanford, competed at the 2014 November North American Cup (NAC) in junior women's foil and junior women's epee. All three placed in the top eight of their respective events out of more than 150 fencers, and Ibrahim was the runner-up out of 180 competitors in junior women's epee.

On Saturday, Ibrahim and Keft competed in junior women's epee. Ibrahim, a freshman, went 5-1 in the pool round. She then fenced her way into the final four and to the final two out of 180 competitors, toughing it out in a couple of very close matches to reach the championship bout. Ibrahim eventually finished second after falling 15-8 in the championship bout to Tatijana Stewart.

"Safa just fenced so well and confidently," said Temple head coach Nikki Franke. "She had a bunch of close matches and just stayed focused and pulled out the wins."

Keft, a sophomore, advanced to the round of eight and finished seventh overall despite some pain after injuring her shoulder early in the day.

"She worked through the pain all day," said Franke, "and I'm so proud of her. She forced her way through it and got a great result."

On Friday, Stanford, a freshman, recorded an impressive eighth-place finish in junior women's foil out of 159 competitors. She went 5-1 in the early pool round, and was later defeated in the round of eight by the eventual champion, Sara Taffel.

"Becca fenced really tough yesterday," said Franke. "She also had some close bouts but was really able to adjust and keep herself moving. As the day went on her mobility improved, and that really helped her."

Overall, Franke was extremely pleased with all three results.

"We had three girls come out and three finalists, and that's one of our best results in a long time," said Franke. "I'm just so proud of them. The team definitely made a good showing this weekend. We've been putting in a lot of hard work and this weekend we saw the results of that."

Next up for the entire team is the Penn State Open, an individual event set for Saturday, Nov. 22 in State College, Pa.