Coach Laurie Schiller sits seven triumphs short of one of college sports’ ultimate milestones: 1,000 wins.After this weekend, Schiller expects to be one away.If his team’s past performances at the Penn Duals is any indication, Schiller will be putting the champaigne on ice. NU has won all of its matches in Philadelphia three of the last four years.The Wildcats will play six matches Saturday, facing Temple, Sacred Heart, Drew, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Duke at this year’s event.”We have a big match coming up, but we should be able to beat all those teams,” Schiller said. “We’re good enough to do that, and it will be disappointing if we don’t.” Temple finished ninth in last year’s Women’s United States Fencing Coaches Association poll and nearly defeated NU in the 2009 Penn Invitational. The Cats beat the Owls 14-13 behind six wins from the epée squad. “The toughest match is probably Temple,” Schiller said. “They have a real good team, and we’re going to have to fence our best. They’re the first match of the day, so whichever one of us is awake and ready to go first thing is going to get that one.”NU barely beat Penn last year, riding strong performances from the foil and epée weapon groups to a 15-12 victory. But the Cats had no trouble with the Tar Heels last season, defeating them 18-9 at the Penn Invitational and 20-7 at the Duke Duals. North Carolina finished 14th in last year’s coaches’ poll. In its matchup with Duke, NU will have to battle one of the nation’s top fencers. Sophomore sabreist Becca Ward became the second fencer in Blue Devils history to win an NCAA championship last year. Ward’s standout 2009 season included an 18-0 record at the Penn Duals. Ward also won bronze medals in the team and individual sabre events at the 2008 Olympic Games.Sacred Heart and Drew are not known for their fencing programs. NU beat Drew 23-4 at last year’s Penn Invitational.”There’s some really competitive teams and not-so-competitive teams,” senior sabre captain Whitney White said. “It’s important to stay focused the entire meet.” This weekend’s event will be the Cats’ second dual event of the season. In November the team went 4-0 at the Stanford Duals, defeating its four opponents by a combined score of 95-13. But that was nearly two months ago, and NU hasn’t fenced competitively since Nov. 21, when the Cats traveled to University Park, Pa., to participate in the Penn State Open.”Fencing teams, unlike the rest of the women’s sports, as a rule, take the vacation off, so we’re no worse off, if you will, in terms of the break, than our competitors,” Schiller said.The Cats used the break to improve their fitness, ensuring they will be in shape and ready to compete Saturday.”Everyone on the team knows the commitment and knows they can’t sit on the couch all day over break,” senior epée captain Kayley French said. “Everybody was ready to come back to practice strong.” Despite the layoff, Schiller has no doubt his team will be ready.”The kids know what the task is in front of them, and we’ll get them mentally prepared,” Schiller said. “And then we’ll get to Pennsylvania and do what we have to do.”

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