Northwestern is used to regular success, but the last two weekends have been anything but regular.
After having several fencers finish outside the top 16 at the USFA January North American Cup, the Wildcats went into last weekend’s Philadelphia Invitational and NYU Invitational ranked fourth in the nation, according to the CollegeFencing360.com coaches poll. But they ended up losing close duals to No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Temple and Columbia before losing 19-8 to No. 3 Notre Dame.
“I can’t say we were pleased with our performance,” junior foilist Dayana Sarkisova said about the weekend.
However, this weekend the Cats have an opportunity to bounce back and possibly gain some revenge against rival Notre Dame at the Notre Dame Duals.
“I am actually feeling really good about it,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “We have been really working hard this week.”
The event will feature several of the collegiate fencing teams in the Midwest Conference competing in team dual competitions.
Schiller said he expects his team to do well and has high goals for his fencers, especially in a tournament that he feels contains a much lower level of competition than last weekend.
“Win them all, and especially do well against Notre Dame,” Schiller said. “But we want to dominate against every team at the tournament.”
Most of the NU fencers said they agree and are confident they will be able to do well this weekend, even with the subpar results over the past two weekends.
Sarkisova said the team lost a little bit of confidence last weekend, but said the team may be more prepared to succeed against Notre Dame this weekend after seeing them at the NYU Invitational. The matchup poses a family feud for Sarkisova, as her cousin Radmila Sarkisova is a senior foilist for the Fighting Irish and should be competing this weekend.
“I think we have gotten older and more mature about it, but there is definitely a friendly rivalry there,” Sarkisova said.
While Schiller wants his fencers to win as many bouts as possible this weekend, he is equally concerned with making sure everyone gets an opportunity to perform. Unlike other events during the season where a select travel squad is taken to dual meets, the entire team will be making the short trip to South Bend, Ind.
“I am not as concerned with the score as getting everybody out there and letting them show us what they can do,” Schiller said.
On a positive note for the Cats, it seems that some of NU’s injured fencers are finally getting healthy. Both senior Chloe McGuffin and freshman Katherine Kim will rejoin the squad this weekend after spending the majority of the season out with injury. And while sophomore epeeist Dina Bazarbayeva has not been cleared by the medical staff, it is possible that she could return to the strips as early as next week.
