This weekend is the eye of the storm for the Northwestern fencing team.

Coming off losses to Notre Dame and Ohio State on Feb 9 in Columbus, Ohio, the Wildcats will be able to give their substitutes some experience against four teams at Wayne State in Detroit on Sunday. This will be the Cats’ last competition before the conference championships next week.

NU will face Detroit-Mercy, Michigan, Michigan State and host Wayne State.

“We’ve fenced all these teams before,” head coach Laurie Schiller said. “We’ve beaten them all badly. I don’t see why this should be any different.”

Schiller said he plans to start fencers this weekend who are typically relegated to substitute duty.

“I want to make sure we get as many kids in as we can,” he said. “Whenever we can do that, we try.”

The Cats’ star fencers will also get a chance to work out any glitches in their games before heading to South Bend, Ind., next week.

“It’ll be a good chance for people to make sure to fine-tune what they know for championships,” team captain Lynn Zuckerman said.

Meanwhile, the United States Fencing Coaches Association released its updated collegiate rankings yesterday. The Cats maintained their No. 6 ranking, behind the No. 3 Fighting Irish and No. 4 Buckeyes – teams the Cats will have to beat next week to win their fourth consecutive conference championship.

Several NU fencers used their off week last weekend to participate in the United States Fencing Association Junior Olympic Championships in Columbus. Freshmen sabreists Lauren Dunn and Lauren Van Gieson finished 11th and 20th, respectively, in the junior division.