When Northwestern takes the strip against Notre Dame this weekend, all eyes will be on the epée squad, as the Wildcats prepare to take on the Hurley sisters and the rest of the Fighting Irish.
“Epée squad is really tough with their two Hurleys on it,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “The two of them are international-class fencers, amongst the best in the world.”
Kelley, a senior, has been one of the top fencers in the collegiate game over the past several years, winning the NCAA Championships in 2008 and finishing second in 2007. She also competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Courtney, a sophomore, placed third at the NCAA Championships in 2009, earning first-team All-American honors. She also won three Junior World Cup gold medals in that same year.
The Cats will counter with an experienced epée squad, led by three seniors: Joanna Niklinska, Christa French and Kayley French.
“I have a lot of confidence in the epée squad, so it’s really a non-issue in my head,” senior foilist Meredith Baskies said. “The Hurleys are very talented but we have the French sisters.”
The squad’s challenge will be to score a point or two off the Hurleys, and then take advantage of the weaker fencers on Notre Dame’s squad, as they did at the NYU Duals earlier this season.
On January 23rd, a perfect Northwestern team took on Notre Dame in New York, and suffered their first loss of the season, falling 17-10, but they were encouraged by a strong performance from the epée squad. After going 5-20 against Notre Dame last season, NU’s epée squad went 4-5 in New York, led by freshman Kate Cavanaugh’s surprising victory over Kelley Hurley.
“It was very tough, because she’s so experienced and has done so many touches before,” freshman epéeist Kate Cavanaugh said. “They’re definitely very strong, but we got a taste of them at New York, and we’re coming in really fired up.”
After having some success last year, the foil squad will look to rebound from a disappointing 3-6 performance against the Irish in New York.
“They have a great squad,” Baskies said. “Sometimes you have to lose to win. You don’t get too confident, you don’t get too arrogant, it keeps us grounded.”
NU is 9-39 all-time versus Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish mark the only real challenge NU will face at the Notre Dame Duals.
NU will also take on Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland State, Michigan State, and Lawrence. The Cats have a combined 225-7 record against these eight teams.
“What we try to do is get them to focus on every match, and shut out each of these other teams,” Schiller said. “Those weaker teams you can lose to if you don’t pay attention, but in this case, we want them to actually lose no bouts. That’s the focus.”
“Notre Dame has the same issue. They’re fencing a bunch of weak teams and then they got to fence us, so it’s going to (come down to) who’s going to be most prepared and stay focused.”
After fencing in Evanston last weekend, the Notre Dame Duals mark the Cats return to the road, where they’ve had success throughout most of the season.
“We do really well on the road,” Baskies said. “Our friends and family really aren’t there, so there’s less distractions. Because of our (fencing) family, as long as we’re all together, it always feels like we’re home.”
After posting good results at Stanford and Penn, NU will take on a more challenging road atmosphere at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse in South Bend, Ind.
“Notre Dame has a lot of distractions,” Schiller said. “It has an ice rink in it so it’s cold. It smells bad with the zamboni oil smell all the time, there’s hockey games going on, they play all kinds of music-their fight song and stuff. They always have a pretty good crowd.”
“It’s intimidating, so we just to throw all that aside and go deal with it. That’s part of what going on the road is all about.”[email protected]
