Seventh-Ranked Fencing Goes 4-1 on the First Day of Northwestern Duals

Saturday, February 3

South Bend, Ind.

All Day

Temple University

Lawrence, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, FDU

Photo by: Nguyen Ho

Seventh-Ranked Fencing Goes 4-1 on the First Day of Northwestern Duals

2.3.18 | Women's Fencing

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The seventh-ranked Temple fencing team (18-7) started strong at the two-day Northwestern Duals, going 4-1 on the first day including wins over Stanford and #8 Northwestern. The four victories put head coach Dr. Nikki Franke at 799 career wins, and the first win on Sunday will be the 800th of her legendary career.

Meet Results
> The sabre team continued what has been a truly impressive season, going 5-0 on the day. The squad has not lost in two meets, and is 23-2 overall in 2017-18.
> Temple won 20-7 vs. Lawrence in match one, and then defeated #8 Northwestern 16-11 after losing to the Wildcats just two weeks ago.
> Top-ranked Notre Dame handed the Owls their only loss of the day in a close match, 15-12, with Temple's sabre squad winning 7-2.
> To finish the day, Temple beat Stanford 19-8 and FDU 22-5.

Individual Highlights
> All five members of the sabre squad had impressive outings, led by freshman Eva Hinds who went a perfect 9-0 for the day including a big 3-0 result against Notre Dame.
> Sophomore Kerry Plunkett finished 8-1 for sabre including a 3-0 mark vs. Northwestern. Both junior Jessica Rockford and sophomore Malia Hee went 7-2, while junior Blessing Olaode went 6-3.
> Leading the foil squad was sophomore Kennedy Lovelace with a record of 9-3 including 3-0 marks against both Stanford and FDU. Junior Auset Muhammad went 2-1 against Northwestern and finished 7-5 overall.
> Senior Safa Ibrahim had the best epee squad record at 8-3, and went 2-0 vs. Stanford.
> Freshman Megan Ross went 5-0 for foil with a 3-0 mark vs. Lawrence and a 2-0 mark against Stanford.

Thoughts From Head Coach Dr. Nikki Franke
"Sabre did a great job today. They really led the team. It was nice to win the rematch with Northwestern - that was a big win for us and the girls fenced well. We had a close match with Notre Dame and we're very proud we were in there the whole way. I think we're starting to see some of the consistency that we've been looking for all season. All in all it was a good first day, but we have tough matches again tomorrow so we have to be ready."

#7 Temple 20, Lawrence 7
Foil: 6-3
Epee: 6-3
Sabre: 8-1

#7 Temple 16, #8 Northwestern 11
Foil: 4-5
Epee: 5-4
Sabre: 7-2

#1 Notre Dame 15, #7 Temple 12
Foil: 3-6
Epee: 2-7
Sabre: 7-2

#7 Temple 19, Stanford 8
Foil: 7-2
Epee: 5-4
Sabre: 6-3

#7 Temple 22, Fairleigh Dickinson 5
Foil: 6-3
Epee: 7-2
Sabre: 9-0