The Northwestern fencing team may face its toughest competition of the season this weekend. Or it may not.

The No. 6 Wildcats were scheduled to face conference rival Notre Dame, among other teams, at the Air Force Invite in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday.

But the Fighting Irish, ranked No. 2 in the latest NCAA coaches poll, may decline their matchup with NU. The Irish, who are slated to to face NU sixth and last in the round-robin Saturday, have the option to decline their match with the Cats.

“I’m going to be very annoyed if Notre Dame doesn’t fence us,” NU head coach Laurie Schiller said. “You can go out there and cream people if you don’t fence all day, but we fence all day.”

Schiller said a lack of preparation may cause the Irish to turn down the match, despite the experience both teams would gain from the match.

“They have voluntary practice and don’t do conditioning, so it’s no wonder they couldn’t take a long day, ” Schiller said.

Even without the Notre Dame matchup, the Cats will have their hands full with No. 4 Stanford. The Cardinal features last year’s NCAA foil champion, Iris Zimmerman.

NU will also face host Air Force, Cal State-Fullerton and California-San Diego.

In addition to their normal practice schedule, the Cats have upped their conditioning to prepare for the high altitude in Colorado.

“We’ve been working on a lot of conditioning and stamina, like instead of doing 10 sprints, we’ll do 20,” NU captain Lynn Zuckerman said.

Schiller doesn’t expect the altitude to cause major problems for the Cats.

“You just have to make sure you’re hydrated,” he said.

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