The Wildcats finished their dual-match season with a perfect performance at the NU Duals, sweeping eight teams on Saturday.
“Even though we didn’t fence tough teams we made sure to execute the right actions and have a good day so we’re feeling good for the next tournament,” junior Jessica Florendo said.
Northwestern swept Michigan State, Purdue, Bowling Green, Oberlin and Minnesota. The Cats also defeated Michigan 23-4, Chicago 25-2 and Wisconsin 26-1.
With the exception of the fencers competing at the USFA Junior Olympics this weekend, this was the last tournament before the conference championships Feb. 25-26 and NCAA championships March 16-17.
“We had a lot of team spirit,” senior Morgan Engling said. “There were a few bouts when I was down and with the squad behind you giving you advice it makes a huge difference.”
The Cats finished with a record of 182-7 for the day. The foil team went 72-0, winning all of their bouts.
“We took all the bouts we were supposed to,” junior Mai Vu said. “I don’t think this was a particularly hard meet but we just fenced and did what we were supposed to-Sometimes it’s harder to fence beginners because they’re very erratic and they don’t respond to certain moves so you have to make sure you’re simple and clean with them.”
Northwestern finished its dual-match season 35-4, losing to only Notre Dame, Ohio State, and St. Johns during the season.
Although the competition last weekend wasn’t as stiff as in the past, the Cats didn’t let up. Coach Laurie Schiller said the team used the bouts as mental preparation and despite weak competition, last weekend was important for the upcoming tournaments.
“You have to focus through everything, whether it’s a good (fencer) or bad (fencer),” he said. “That’s what I challenged them to do this weekend and I don’t think you can get a much more dominant (performance).
In the conference tournament there are both team and individual competitions. All the NU fencers will qualify for the conference individual competition, where after a round of pools they will compete in a direct-elimination tournament. In the team competition, the three squads are seeded based on performance during the season and in the individual tournament. The squads’ results determine the overall team score.
“I think we have a chance to do really well at conference and at the NCAA (competition),” Vu said. “We could do at least top three, I think.”
Reach Annie Martin at [email protected].
