Columbia Cuts Down Crimson; Swordsmen Lose Again, 14-13

It is like losing three baseball games in the ninth on the last pitch, but as improbable as it may seem, Harvard's swordsmen dropped their third consecutive contest in the final bout, losing Saturday to Columbia, 14-13.

The Crimson landed in the heart of fencing land, New York City, at an extreme psychological disadvantage. Thursday Cornell had crushed any Ivy title hopes, 14-13, and on Friday deja vu struck as Penn foiled the Crimson by the same margin.

Strong Second Round

After the first round against Columbia, however, things did not look much brighter for Harvard's blade brandishers, as they were down, 2-7. A strong second round rectified matters as Harvard, led by a spectacular epee performance tied the score at nine all.

Harvard, however, haunted by the similarity of the situation, could not escape the Lions' onslaught and faded in the final round, 4-5, thus losing the match. 14-13.

All-American Phillipe Bennett was off the mark Saturday as he dropped two matches, his first losses of the year, Fresh-man Eric Mendlebaum, also competing in the foil, turned in a strong performance, beating one of the Columbia men who had upset Bennett.

The epee team dropped but one bout as John Hirshfeld and Matt Simmons went undefeated. The saber squad did not fare as well. Gordon Rutledge managed to win two of his three rounds, but John Majors lost twice and Larry Tu had even worse luck, coming up empty-handed.

Seesaw

The match seesawed back-and-forth in the final round with neither team holding more than a one point advantage. With the score tied at thirteen, foilsman Nick Tepe just ran out of time in his effort to gain the victory for Harvard, as the clock ran out.