By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
At the end of January, the young Wildcats were taking time to gel as a team.
A 2-4 weekend at the NYU duals took the Cats’ record to 18-5, and a disappointing month was made worse by two close one-touch defeats.
The Cats needed a turnaround, and it all changed for them in February.
An unbeaten month saw the Cats register 18-straight wins, knocking off four ranked teams: No. 1 Penn State, No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 10 Stanford and No. 9 Temple.
“Fencing is an individual sport in a team situation and it takes a while for everyone to mesh,” team captain Sophie Eustis said. “After losing 14-13 twice (last month), I think we all clicked together.”
The win against the Nittany Lions was the first in head coach Laurie Schiller’s 29-year career.
“It’s a team I’ve never beaten and finally we’ve got that monkey off our back,” Schiller said. “A win like that gives the team the confidence that we can beat anyone.”
Sophomore Samantha Nemecek has been in dominant form with a record of 42-2 this month.
This past weekend she led the Cats’ foil team to an unbeaten 18-0 record.
“I really contribute my success to fate,” Nemecek said. “A senior graduated last year so we didn’t know how we’d do, but we’ve surpassed any goals we had and pulled through this season.”
Schiller said much of the success this month was due to a dramatic improvement in the sabre department.
The sabre team went 15-3 this month, beating two ranked teams: the Fighting Irish and the Owls.
“If the sabre team continues to fence the way they did this weekend, we can definitely do some damage at the conference championships this weekend,” Schiller said.
This weekend sees the Cats travel to South Bend, Ind., for the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship.
The Cats have not won the championship since 1991, and the seniors on the team are eager to return with a title this year.
“We can win,” Eustis said. “If we have another ‘on’ day, it won’t be that difficult and I want that ring.”
The tournament is divided into two days.
The first day sees an individual tournament and 40 percent of the final numeric is based on the fencers performance on the day. The other 60 percent is based on seeding, which is decided on performance throughout the season.
The final numeric decides the final seeding for the tournament on the second day.
Going into the tournament, the foil team is seeded first while the epee team is tied for first with Wayne State and Notre Dame. The sabre team is seeded second.
“Like I’ve been saying all season, you build on what you do and the team has been building in training,” Schiller said. “I think we have the strongest team on paper, but in the end we have to perform.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
