David Letterman may be the master of the Top 10 List, but lately the Northwestern women fencers have become the master of the top-10 finish.

NU’s eighth-place showing at the NCAA Championships in Houston on March 17-20 marked the sixth straight year the Wildcats have breached the top 10 in the women’s category.

Their finish, however, was unofficial, since the final standings are composed of both women’s and men’s results. Because NU does not have a men’s varsity team, the squad can never come in first.

Officially, the Cats finished 12th in the 33-team field. All other schools in the top 22 had qualifiers from the men’s and women’s side.

NU (33-4) finished sixth at last year’s NCAAs. Coach Laurie Schiller said this year’s slip in the standings was due to a tougher field, which included freshmen such as Notre Dame’s Olympic gold medal-winning sabreist Mariel Zagunis and NCAA champion foilist Emily Cross of Harvard.

“You can always do a little better,” Schiller said, “but they did basically what they were going to be able to do.

“You can’t complain about a top-10 finish at the nationals.”

The Cats were led by senior foilist Julia F