Jan. 27, 2001

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. (1/27/01)– The Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams both swept past five opponents at Saturday’s Northwestern Open, highlighted by a 14-13 win for the seventh-ranked Irish women over fourth-ranked Northwestern.

“I’m very proud of our team today,” said Irish head coach Yves Auriol. “I was somewhat surprised by how big a lead we had, but I was not surprised by the way Northwestern kept fighting,”

The Irish women jumped out early against the Wildcats, with the foil and sabre teams producing a 13-6 lead. Sophomore women’s epeeist Meagan Call then clinched the victory with a 5-3 win over Meghan Gaseor.

“Even when we led 13-6, I knew that we still had to work,” said Auriol. “Epee is a strange weapon, momentum can come and go, and anything can happen,” said Auriol.

The second-ranked Irish men improved to 9-0 after scoring victories over Purdue (24-3), Northwestern (21-6), Case Western Reserve and Lawrence (both 23-4) while the women (now 6-3 overall) also downed Purdue, Case Western Reserve, and Lawrence (each 24-3) and Chicago(21-6).

Junior Brian Casas (10-3, 17-8 overall), and senior Scott Gabler (14-1,18-7) paced the men’s epee squad while sophomore foilist Ozren Debic went undefeated (8-0) and improved to 18-1 for the season, bringing his career mark to 60-4. Junior Steven Mautone (6-0) and sophomore Forrest Walton (8-0) also went undefeated for the men’s foil team.

The men’s sabre team was led by the undefeated bouts of senior Andrzej Bednarski (5-0, 9-1), junior Andre Crompton (8-0, 16-4), and sophomore Matt Fabricant, (6-0, 15-0), Junior Gabor Szelle also was flawless in sabre, going 7-0 to push his season record to 15-2 and his career mark to 112-7.

The Irish women were led by the perfect records of sophomore foilist Liza Boutsikaris (13-0, 21-4 overall for season), freshman foilist Maggie Jordan (12-0,18-6) and senior sabre Carianne McCullough (7-0,10-4).

Call led the women’s epeeists with an 11-3 mark (18-7 for the season), followed by sophomore Anna Carnick (10-4,14-11), and senior Kim Demaio (8-4,12-12). Freshman sabres Jessie Filkins (6-1,13-2) and Destanie Milo (8-1,15-4) continued impressive starts to their Notre Dame careers while sophomore Natalia Mazur won six of her eight bouts (11-7 overall).

The Notre Dame fencers will face Northwestern again next weekend (Feb. 3-4) at the Notre Dame Open, to be held in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse. Other teams participating include Air Force, Chicago, Cleveland State, Detroit, Lawrence, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue, and Wayne State.