No. 7 Fencing Splits Matches on Final Day of Philadelphia Invitational

Sunday, January 21

Philadelphia, Pa.

All Day

Temple University

Yale, Wagner, Brown, Columbia

No. 7 Fencing Splits Matches on Final Day of Philadelphia Invitational

1.21.18 | Women's Fencing

PHILADELPHIA (Penn) - The seventh-ranked Temple fencing team concluded its second day at the Philadelphia Invitational with a record of 2-2, bringing its two-day total to 7-3 and its season total to 14-6. The Owls beat Brown and swept Wagner, but lost by a point to Yale and also lost to No. 2 Columbia.

Meet Results
> For a second day in a row, the Owls' sabre squad went undefeated and finished the weekend with a perfect record of 10-0.
> Both foil and sabre beat Yale, but the Bulldogs had enough points in epee for a 14-13 win in Temple's first match of the day.
> Wagner had no foil squad, but the Owls did sweep the Seahawks 9-0 in both epee and sabre.
> All three squads won in Temple's third match, a 19-8 defeat of Brown, led by epee and sabre with scores of 7-2.
> Despite a 5-4 sabre win against Columbia, the Owls lost 17-10 overall in their final match of the day.

Individual Highlights
> Junior and sabre squad leader Blessing Olaode had the day's best record at 8-1, going undefeated in two of three matches she fenced in, Yale and Brown.
> Junior Jessica Rockford and freshman Eva Hinds both went 5-1 for sabre, while sophomore Kerry Plunkett was 5-2.
> Freshman Kari Weiner had the best record in foil at 5-3, and went 3-0 vs. Yale.
> Sophomore Camille Simmons posted a 6-1 record for epee, while junior Fiona Fong went 5-2. Facing tough opponents against Yale and Columbia, senior Safa Ibrahim went 4-4 overall.

Thoughts From Head Coach Dr. Nikki Franke
> "We knew Yale was a good team, and that was a close match. They were pumped and ready and we started a little flat - not to take anything away from them. Once we got going we were in good shape. It was fun fencing Fatima's team (Temple alum Fatima Largaespada is Wagner's head coach) and they were very excited to face us. We fenced well against Columbia, who had their whole foil squad this time, and sabre beat them which is really good. They're obviously one of top teams in the country. We were in there with them at 8-8 and even ahead at one point. Overall our ladies fenced very hard and were very focused, and we ended the day much stronger than we began."

Up Next
> Temple will have two weeks before its next competition, another big one as the Owls are set to face 10 teams over two days at the Northwestern Duals on Feb. 3-4.

Yale 14, Temple 13
Foil: 5-4
Epee: 2-7
Sabre: 6-3

Temple 27, Wagner 0
Foil: 9-0 (no Wagner foil squad)
Epee: 9-0
Sabre: 9-0

Temple 19, Brown 8
Foil: 5-4
Epee: 7-2
Sabre: 7-2

Columbia 17, Temple 10
Foil: 2-7
Epee: 3-6
Sabre: 5-4