Fencing Faces Top Competition, Goes 2-3 at the Penn State Invite

Saturday, January 17

State College, Pa.

All Day

Temple University

Penn State Invitational (Penn State, Penn, UNC, Columbia, Haverford)

Rachael Clark

Photo by: Cameron Resnick

Fencing Faces Top Competition, Goes 2-3 at the Penn State Invite

1.17.15 | Women's Fencing

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - In its first team competition of the spring semester, Temple fencing finished 2-3 against some of the top teams in the nation at the Penn State Invite. The Owls, now 5-4 for the season, picked up decisive wins against UNC and Haverford but lost to three top 10 teams- Columbia, Penn and host Penn State.

Temple's wins were by scores of 25-2 over Haverford and 20-7 against UNC. The Owls suffered a narrow, 15-12 loss to Penn and also lost 20-7 to Penn State and 16-11 to Columbia. The epee and foil teams both finished 3-2 for the day, with foil winning 6-3 against Columbia in one of the day's highlights for the Owls.

"This was a good test for us to see where we are," said head coach Nikki Franke. "We have some nagging injuries right now but once everyone is healthy we should see improvement. The girls got to see how tough the top competition is, and the level they have to perform at if they want to beat these top 10 teams."

Against host Penn State in their first match of the day, the Owls' foil and sabre squads lost 7-2 while epee won three bouts against the Lions. Freshman epeeist Safa Ibrahim had a positive record of 2-1 that included a quality win against Penn State's Jessie Radanovich, a 2014 NCAA semifinalist. Ibrahim went 9-6 overall for the meet, also earning a 2-1 record against UNC.

Sophomore Rachael Clark earned a win for epee in one of her three bouts against the Lions, and was one of Temple's strongest fencers on the day with a record of 9-4. She was undefeated with records of 3-0 against both Penn and UNC.

Match two saw Temple take down Haverford 25-2, with foil going undefeated at 9-0. Both epee and sabre won 8-1. Against Penn in the third dual of the day, Temple was narrowly defeated 15-12. Epee won against the Quakers, 6-3, while both foil and sabre lost by the same score.

Sophomore Miranda Litzinger was 6-1 overall in foil, posting 2-0 records against both Columbia and Haverford while going 2-1 vs. Penn. Fellow sophomore foilist Kristen Kemnitzer was undefeated at 5-0, going 3-0 vs. Haverford and 2-0 against UNC.

For the sabre squad, junior Gloria Aguilar went 8-7 overall which included a 2-1 record against Penn State. She was undefeated in the Owls' win over Haverford, going 3-0. Sabre squad leader and overall team captain Lauren Rangel-Friedman went 2-1 vs. UNC and was perfect against Haverford at 2-0.

"It was the first meet of the new semester and we're just getting back into it," said assistant coach/epee coach Anastasia Ferdman. "We faced a lot of strong schools and we hung in there. We're learning from our mistakes and looking forward to the next meet."

Individual Results

Epee
Jessica Hall, 6-3
Rachael Clark, 9-4
Alexandra Keft, 4-4
Safa Ibrahim, 9-6

Foil
Fatima Largaespada, 4-6
Demi Antipas, 4-5
Miranda Litzinger, 6-1
Kristen Kemnitzer, 5-0
Becca Stanford, 4-5
Mariah Slagle, 4-1

Sabre
Lauren Rangel-Friedman, 6-8
Olivia Wynn, 2-2
Gloria Aguilar, 8-7
Victoria Suber, 3-9