Seven Northwestern fencers had a novel experience over the weekend in Greenville, S.C., at the North American Cup.

But unfortunately for the Wildcats, its had nothing to do with the town’s tourist attractions or “hopping” night life — instead, their new experience was defeat.

All seven Cats fencers were toppled at the North American Cup, an individual event run by the United States Fencing Association.

In épée, sophomore Kate Rudkin finished 25th and junior Jennifer Greenebaum 91st; in sabre, senior Carly Wells ended up 32nd and junior Kate Frambach 54th; and in foil, junior Kristen Dorf came in at 24th, sophomore Eva Mendelsohn finished 51st and junior Maggie Kebrdle wound up 59th.

Rudkin and Mendelsohn also competed in the junior division with Rudkin placing 9th in épée and Mendelsohn finishing 19th in foil.

Much of the blame for the Cats’ struggles lay with the month long break they had between matches.

“It was an OK result,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “It wasn’t a great result. We had a layoff over Christmas, and that makes it hard.”

One fencer who wasn’t affected, though, was Mendelsohn. She did her best fencing in the junior foil, her first event of the weekend.

“I was pleasantly surprised after having not worked in a month,” Mendelsohn said.

As for the senior division, she chalked up her difficulties to her low expectations — Mendelsohn said she bought into others’ assessments of her as a punching bag. But if she is to compete in the senior division, Mendelsohn will have to make some adjustments. After this year she can no longer fence in the junior division.

“I’m going to have to start doing better in those,” Mendelsohn said.

While Mendelsohn was happy with her junior division curtain call, Rudkin expected to finish better than ninth.

“Kate had her heart set on making the junior final,” Schiller said. “Ninth is good, but we know she can do better.”

Rudkin finished third at a December tournament in California, which was similar to the North American Cup.

Although the Cats — who are 5-0 on the season — are not accustomed to losing matches, the tournament gave them a chance to square off against some of the USFA’s top-ranked fencers. It also, according to Schiller, got their competitive juices flowing for Friday’s NU Duals.

“It’s good practice for this week,” Schiller said. “The competition this weekend will not nearly be as tough.”