Women's Fencing: Female fencers capture fourth straight Ivy title

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Women's fencing won H-Y-Ps and the Ivy title—both four-peats.

In the typical college paper's sports section, there isn't likely to be a page devoted to fencing. But this lack of attention hasn't kept Yale women's fencing from making itself known. Winning its fourth straight H-Y-P tournament and Ivy League title in Cambridge last weekend, the team proved that the best way to avoid going unnoticed is to be so good that you're impossible to ignore.

Going into the H-Y-Ps, the fencers knew they would find their greatest challenge in Princeton, perhaps the greatest epée team in the nation. "H-Y-Ps were really pivotal," captain Katie Zuckerman, JE '99, said. "We knew Princeton would be hard and that we were really the underdogs going into the tournament. But when we faced Princeton we really felt like we were winning the whole time, and they were losing."

The team's extraordinary ability to inspire solid performances--from its leaders to its rookies--has brought Yale four years of consistent domination. "We've had a lot of turnaround in the past four years. Four starters graduated last year," Nush Powell, JE '99, said. "We've traditionally been able to cope because there is always someone who steps up and covers a loss."

Now that the challenge of the H-Y-Ps is over, the team has its sights set on qualifying for the NCAA tournament. "The NCAA rules say that we can have a maximum of four women fencers at the tournament," Powell explained. "We'd really like to fill all four spots."

To indulge in a little superstition, beating Princeton's epée squad by four bouts, taking its fourth Ivy Title during the anniversary of a quarter century of women in Ivy sports, it looks like Yale women's fencing has a lucky number on its side.

--Alison Morris

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