By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
A 5-1 record for the weekend isn’t too bad. But 6-0 would have been so much better, especially for Northwestern coach Laurie Schiller.
The elusive win at the Haverford Invitational this weekend would have brought Schiller the 900th win of his NU coaching career. Instead, it leaves him one short of the landmark.
“It would have been great to get the 900,” Schiller said. “I’m sure it’ll happen next week though and it’s just a number in the end.”
The weekend was not an easy one for the Wildcats. While the Cats managed wins against Duke (19-8), Sacred Heart (23-4), Vassar (24-3), Drew (24-3) and Haverford (23-4), they lost to an impressive Penn team 15-12.
Schiller said the team performed well and beat a good team in Duke, but expected a much better performance against Penn, and was disappointed with the loss.
“Some of our fencers didn’t perform in the clutch,” Schiller said. “Epee didn’t perform as well and our freshmen need to get used to the college style format of fencing which is very different.”
The epee team was not as dominant in their performances as they have been in many of the tournaments preceding this one.
Many of the fencers were rotated against different teams this weekend. Freshman Christa French, the leading performer in the epee division this season, finished 6-2, while classmate Joanna Niklinska finished 6-1.
Because of NU’s depth, Schiller decided to rotate epee fencers to help young fencers gain experience.
It was NU’s foilists who were the stars, losing only four bouts in the six matches they fenced. Sophomore Sam Nemecek led the foil team once again, continuing an impressive second season of collegiate fencing with a 15-1 record.
NU’s sabre team fell against a strong Penn squad but had a good weekend as well, with senior Mai Vu leading the way with a 9-2 record for the weekend.
“Sabre did well this weekend although not so well against Penn,” Schiller said. “Foil were really good but epee did poorly against Penn.”
For Schiller the loss against Penn was the clear sore point of the weekend for the Cats.
“It was a win I was expecting to get and was hoping the foil and epee team would dominate,” Schiller said. “The foil team did really well but the epee team didn’t do as well as I hoped.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
