By Pritish Behuria

The Daily Northwestern

Going into the final dual of the night against the University of North Carolina at this weekend’s UCSD duals, sophomore Samantha Nemecek was looking unstoppable.

Nemecek was 15-0 until she suffered an injury in the first bout of the dual after being hit in the groin. She lost the opening bout but battled through the next two to finish with a record of 17-1 for the weekend, typifying the Wildcats’ performance.

“Sam and Natalie did really well for the foil team,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “She fought through the pain and fortunately, (the injury) came at the end of the day.”

The Cats, who came off a less than impressive performance at last weekend’s NYU duals, responded to their critics this weekend by steamrolling opposition, finishing with a perfect 6-0 record and winning five of their six duals by more than 20 points.

“This weekend we weren’t fencing ranked teams,” Schiller said. “We came close to beating some of those teams last weekend but clearly no one was close to us this weekend.”

Northwestern’s foil team was in spectacular form, with Nemecek, junior Natalie Wang and freshman Meredith Baskies all finishing with 17-1 records for the weekend.

The epee and sabre teams were rotated throughout the day, with freshmen sabreurs Jane Oh and Allie Keller experiencing the first dual meet action of their career.

“(Oh and Keller) fenced really well,” Schiller said. “They get experience to a different format and that’s the reason I bring more people than just the starters.”

The sabre team rotated six fencers on the day and lost to Stanford and the University of North Carolina. Senior Mai Vu led the team with a 13-4 record.

Schiller said the sabre team fenced very well against the lesser ranked teams, and that the weekend gave the Cats an opportunity to allow some of their freshman sabreurs to experience the college format.

The epee team was led by the ever-consistent freshman Christa French. She continued her good form to end the day with a 13-1 record. Classmate Joanna Niklinska lost only two bouts to cement her place as a starter with a 12-2 record.

The epee team has started with three freshmen for most of this season: Niklinska and the French twins. The weekend saw the three freshmen finish with a total record of 36-7.

“All three of them did really well and it bodes well for the future,” Schiller said. “They’re getting used to the format now and just getting better and better.”

Most of the squad will have a break for the next three weeks until dual action resumes.

With the USFA National Junior Olympics just two weeks away, Nemecek and Christa French will have to continue their form to make it to the junior national team.

“We need a break and we’re gonna get one now,” Schiller said. “The weekend after that is crucial and hopefully all these experiences can help us beat some top teams in three weeks time.”

Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].