Irish Win Six ACC Fencing Season Awards

CHARLOTTE – The Notre Dame fencing program won six of the eight Atlantic Coast Conference 2024 Fencing Awards following a vote of the league’s head coaches. The Fighting Irish finished as the NCAA champions for the 14th time in program history and fourth time in the last five seasons.

Tw Notre Dame fencers earned ACC season honors in each category on both the men’s and women’s sides.

On the women’s side, Notre Dame’s Eszter Muhari (epee) and Magda Skarbonkiewicz (sabre) earned the league’s Fencer of the Year honors. Chase Emmer (foil) and Radu Nitu (sabre) won the men’s Fencer of the Year accolades.

Fighting Irish head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia swept the coaching awards, taking home ACC Women’s Coach of the Year and ACC Men’s Coach of the Year honors. The head coach now has 15 ACC Coach of the Year honors, with eight coming from the men’s side and seven from the women’s side. In addition to winning the national title, the Fighting Irish captured both ACC championships this season, earning their ninth women’s title in the last 11 years and their eighth men’s crown in 11 seasons.

Muhari was named ACC Fencer of the Year in women’s epee for the second time (2023). She won her second NCAA women’s epee championship as well as the ACC crown and was voted the 2025 ACC Women’s Championship MVP. A native of Budapest, Hungary, Muhari went 23-1 in the regular season and then was undefeated at 23-0 in the round-robin portion of the NCAA Championships. Muhari also has excelled on the international stage this season, capturing two World Cup titles in 2025.

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Skarbonkiewicz claimed the national championship in women’s sabre as just a freshman. This came a few weeks after she won the ACC Championship in sabre as well. Skarbonkiewicz went 30-4 in the regular season and was 21-1 in the round-robin portion of the NCAA Championships.

A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Emmer captured his first NCAA championship in men’s foil in 2025. He posted a 27-9 record in the regular season and was 7-3 in the round-robin portion of the individual competition at the ACC Championships. He was 17-6 in the round robin at NCAAs, earning the No. 2 seed before ousting top-seeded Andrew Chen of Harvard in the championship bout.

Nitu earned a silver medal at the NCAA Championships and was the ACC champion in men’s sabre in 2025. The native of Bucharest, Romania, was 24-15 in the regular season. He went 16-6 in the round-robin preliminaries at the NCAA Championships, where he then earned the No. 3 seed and advanced to the championship match.

2025 ACC Fencers of the Year
Men’s Epee: Eli Lippman, Sr., North Carolina
Men’s Foil: Chase Emmer, So., Notre Dame
Men’s Sabre: Radu Nitu, So., Notre Dame
Women’s Epee: Eszter Muhari, Jr., Notre Dame
Women’s Foil: Arianna Cao, So., Stanford
Women’s Sabre: Magda Skarbonkiewicz, Fr., Notre Dame
2025 Men’s Coach of the Year: Gia Kvaratskhelia, Notre Dame
2025 Women’s Coach of the Year: Gia Kvaratskhelia, Notre Dame