This past Saturday, the Hopkins Lady Jays participated in the Philadelphia Invitational Fencing Tournament, emerging with a 3-2 record. The team defeated Drew, Haverford, and Lafayette, but fell to tough defeats against #7 Northwestern and #9 Temple.
In the first round, Hopkins faced off against Northwestern. The Wildcats surged to a 22-5 victory. In the Epee, the Lady Jays fell 8-1, with Freshman Katherine Couch picking up the lone win for Hopkins. The Lady Jays also dropped the Sabre, with Junior Rachel Kalina the only victor for Hopkins. The Lady Jays experienced some more success in the Foil, falling 6-3 led by a two-win performance from Senior Captain Jackie Heath.
Against Drew, the Lady Jays cruised to 23-4 victory, in which Freshmen Charlotte Green, Rachel Jandak, and Nastasia Winey led Hopkins to a 9-0 sweep in the Epee. Strong performances from Sophomore Raquel Viquiera and Heath resulted in the Lady Jays winning the Foil 6-3. Lastly, Kalina and Sophomore Isabelle So led Hopkins to an 8-1 victory in the Sabre.
The Lady Jays then dropped their matchup against #9 Temple 18-9. The Owls won the Epee handily 7-2, with Couch and Junior Gianna Puzzo picking up the lone wins for Hopkins. The Foil was a close battle, but Heath’s three-win performance was not enough to lead the Lady Jays to victory, as they lost 5-4. Temple also came out on top in the Sabre, as the Owls defeated Hopkins 6-3, despite two wins from Kalina.
Despite the loss against the Owls, Hopkins finished strong with wins against Haverford and Lafayette. Against Haverford, two wins from Couch were not enough to propel the Lady Jays to victory in the Epee, which they dropped 5-4. Hopkins rebounded with a 7-2 victory in the Foil led by three-win performances from Heath and Viquiera, and a 5-4 win in the Sabre with strong performances from Kalina and So. In total, the Lady Jays defeated the Fords 17-10.
The Lady Jays had an even more impressive victory over the Leopards. The girls registered victories in all three events with Jandak and Puzzo leading the team to a 8-1 victory in the Epee, and Sophomore Ashley Lau and Kalina both turning in three-win performances to lead the Lady Jays to 6-3 victories in the Foil and Sabre respectively.
Among the overall top performers was Jandak, who went 6-1 in the Epee, improving to 17-7 on the season. In the Foil, Heath turned in a record of 12-2 (41-16 on the season) and Viquiera went 9-3 on the day. In the Sabre, Kalina went 11-4, picking up her 150th career win in the process. She improved to 50-9 on the year. Winey and So also had winning records in the Epee and Sabre respectively.
Green said that the success in the tournament could be attributed to teamwork and communication. “The girls’ team did a really good job communicating about strategy before bouts at this tournament,” she said. “With the layout of these tournaments the three girls fencing all fence the same three girls from the other team, so when one of us had fenced a girl before the other we would talk strategy about what had worked with her and what hadn’t.”
Couch added that the team also showed great spirit and focus, even when the going was rough. “We had lots of team spirit and kept good mental focus,” Couch said. “The team fenced well and didn’t get discouraged by some very difficult bouts. As an epee squad, we faced our most challenging opponent in the first round against Northwestern. Despite a tough loss, we kept our focus and continued to fight for every touch.”
Green said that the team does more drills while fencing if they want to improve for future tournaments. “Lots of the time at practice we fence our hardest like we are in competition, where we should be choosing what we are weak at and working to improve that,” Green said. Couch addressed the squad’s need “to improve [their] sense of distance and increase [their] speed of attack.” She added that she believes they “could improve this in practice by practicing distance drills and straight fleche attacks.”
The Lady Jays next look to repeat as Eastern Women’s Fencing Champions, as they engage in a seven-round bout at Hunter College in New York. The Tournament begins at 10AM on February 9th, with the Lady Jays squaring off against the City College of New York in the first round. As a student body, we wish them the best of luck in bringing some more hardwood back to Homewood.
