Lions Rough Up Men, Women Fencers

The Columbia fencing squads rolled into town this weekend and came away with a sweep of their Harvard counterparts.

Coming off an incredible upset of a tough Penn team, the men's team suffered an emotional letdown Saturday and lost its first match of the season, 20-7, to the traditional Ivy-powerhouse Lions.

The loss was the Crimson's first of the season after six wins.

"A real disappointment after beating Penn the way we did," Co-Captain Luca Cicchetti said. "Our level of enthusiam was way up, but when we started fencing against Columbia, we lost it."

Fellow Co-Captain Jeff Levy agreed: "It was difficult to maintain momentum after the upset over Penn."

Levy led Harvard by winning all three of his matches and improving his overall record to 11-5.

From the beginning, however, it was apparent it would be a rough match for the fencers to win. Four close 5-4 losses put Harvard behind quickly, 6-2.

Harvard was forced to play catch--up the rest of the way, and Columbia was able to hold the Crimson off for a 20-7 win.

The narrow defeats early hurt Harvard. "The final score was no way indicative of the way the meet went," Cicchetti said. "We lost a whole lot of 5-4 bouts. Harvard could have come out on top if not for the 5-4 bouts."

The men will not see action again until February 1, when they take on Trinity.

Women

The women's team, despite a strong effort, lost an 11-5 decision to a tough Columbia squad.

"They were very good but I think we fenced well," Harvard Captain Giulia Cicchetti said. "I'm proud of Penelope Papailias' performance [2-2 in the match] and Claudia Polsky [1-3] was good also. Annette Hawkins and Christina Perkins also gave a good effort."

With the squad's next meet not until February, Cicchetti thinks the Crimson can "toughen up" and improve on its 4-3 record.