A trail of debris floated in the wake of the Northwestern fencing team, as the Wildcats cut a path of destruction and went 8-1 at the Notre Dame Duals this weekend.
But No. 4 NU (26-2) was shipwrecked — once again — by No. 7 Notre Dame, losing 17-10 to the Fighting Irish.
It was the Cats’ second-straight loss to Notre Dame. They fell to the Irish by a point at the NU Duals one week ago.
“We all fenced really hard, but they were ready for us,” said foilist Kristen Dorf, a junior. “Notre Dame was really psyched for this. They were on their home court.”
With the crowd behind them, the Irish fenced as if they were the ones out for revenge. Nothing the Cats did could stop the Notre Dame flagship.
Even the NU épée squad, which went 8-1 against Notre Dame the first time around to almost pull out the victory, couldn’t stand up to the Irish. Fencing first and without the team’s hopes pinned on them, the Cats’ épéeists fell 5-4.
“Without that pressure it was easy to drop a couple bouts,” said épéeist Kate Rudkin, a sophomore. “We didn’t go into it feeling we had to go 9-0.”
At the same time the épée squad was having its troubles, the sabre squad was again falling to Notre Dame. This time it lost 7-2, one match worse than its 6-3 defeat last time.
By the time the NU foil team had its own chance for revenge, the match was almost out of reach at 12-6. But junior foilist Maggie Kebrdle didn’t care.
“I purposely didn’t keep track of the score,” Kebrdle said. “If I know I must win, it can sometimes backfire for me.”
Kebrdle’s strategy worked. After missing the first match against the Irish because of an allergic reaction to medication, she went 2-1 on Sunday.
But the rest of the foilists couldn’t pull out the close bouts. Needing eight wins for the victory, the foil squad came up with just four.
In the end, Notre Dame did a better job adjusting than the Cats.
“It’s a big game to see who can figure out the other team more,” Dorf said. “They had already seen us once.”
Outside of their loss to Notre Dame, the Cats enjoyed a weekend of easy victories. They defeated Purdue 21-6, Detroit Mercy 22-5, Cleveland State 24-3, Lawrence 27-0, Wayne State 21-6, Michigan 23-4 and Minnesota 26-1.
The Cats were even able to regroup after their Notre Dame loss to crush a strong Air Force team 20-7.
“Air Force is very aggressive, and they wanted to win,” Kebrdle said. “It was hard to end with them.”
The Cats next meet comes this weekend at the Temple Duals in Philadelphia. But they are eager for a rematch against Notre Dame at the Midwest Conference championship Feb. 24-25.
“I think we’re getting much closer to figuring them out,” Dorf said.
