When Northwestern assistant coach Ed Kaihatsu heard the Notre Dame fight song playing over the loudspeaker prior to their match, he interpreted it as a sign that the first-ranked team was a little intimidated by the Wildcats.

“I feel like other schools are a little rattled when they know they’re fencing Northwestern next,” Kaihatsu said.

However, Notre Dame didn’t need to worry too much as the No. 7 Cats fell to Notre Dame and No. 2 Ohio State at the Notre Dame duals this weekend. NU defeated Duke, Chicago, Wayne State, Lawrence, Oberlin, Detroit-Mercy and Cleveland State and now are 27-4 overall in dual meets.

“I think we’re fortunate and cursed that the top two teams in the nation are our neighbors,” Kaihatsu said. “Because we have such a high measuring stick so (geographically) close, the other teams we fenced (throughout the season) were tough but they didn’t defeat us.”

Notre Dame was a highly-anticipated match because it was one of two teams the Cats had lost to prior to last weekend. Coach Laurie Schiller said a highlight of the meet was when the foil team, which has fenced very consistently this season, came back from being down 3-0 to win 5-4.

The match against Ohio State was extremely close – the final bout determined the winner. The epee bout was tied 4-4, but NU lost the last touch and the match. Schiller thought the Cats fenced well but could have beaten both Notre Dame and Ohio State.

“We feel we’re as good as any team in the country and we’re always disappointed to lose to anybody,” Schiller said.

The only match on Sunday, against Duke, tested the team’s quality beyond the starters. Since dual matches always have 27 bouts and the team that wins the most bouts is declared the winner of the match, coaches will often substitute reserve fencers when they have won 14 bouts. However, NU coaches started substituting their starting fencers out too early. After the NU coaches substituted, Duke came back to make the match close. With just a one-point lead at 13-12, junior Sarah Gravlee won the second-to-last bout to save the match for NU.

“I think it shows the strength of our squad as a whole and our depth,” Kaihatsu said.

Although Kaihatsu said the Cats seem tough to other teams, he said they haven’t gotten cocky because they know they could lose any match.

“The girls don’t know (how intimidating they are) so they keep their heads down and work hard,” Kaihatsu said.

Schiller said he hopes last weekend’s performance will help boost the Cats’ ranking.

“I think we’re better than seventh,” Schiller said. “I’d like to see us up at third or fourth.”

Reach Annie Martin at [email protected].