Jan. 22, 2017
By Joanne Norell
NEW YORK, N.Y. – The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing programs wrapped the weekend with matching 3-1 records Sunday at the NYU Invitational. Both the No. 4 Irish men and No. 3 Irish women defeated St. John’s, NYU and Wayne State, but fell to No. 1 Columbia for the second time on the weekend.
How It Happened
Men’s Results
The Irish began the day with a rematch from Saturday’s St. John’s Invitational, this time defeating No. 8 St. John’s 17-10 after falling to the Red Storm the day before. The Irish epee and foil groups both went 7-2 to help lead the Irish to victory.
The Irish also defeated host NYU 17-10, with all three weapons squads posting winning records, led by a 7-2 epee squad.
In the next dual, the Irish fell to top-ranked Columbia 15-12, unable to avenge their Saturday loss to the Lions.
Notre Dame closed out the weekend with a dominant showing against Wayne State, winning 25-2, with both epee and foiling going undefeated against the Warriors.
Women’s Results
The Irish women picked up two handy victories to start the day, with a 21-6 win over No. 10 St. John’s for their second over the Red Storm on the weekend, and a 22-5 win over NYU. The Irish women’s foil squad went 9-0 against both St. John’s and NYU, while the sabre team was 7-2 against both teams.
Like the men, however, the Irish couldn’t overcome No. 1 Columbia in the next dual, falling 16-11 to the Lions. The Irish foilists went 6-3 against the Lions, but neither epee nor sabre could come up with a winning record.
The Irish finished the weekend with a 20-7 win over Wayne State, with epee posting an 8-1 mark, foil going 7-2 and sabre going 5-4.
Key Contributors
The Irish got strong input from a wide range of contributors Sunday. Junior sabruer Jonah Shainberg led the men’s sabre squad with a 7-4 record, while freshmen Zachary Zeller (6-2) and Ariel Simmons (6-1) anchored the men’s epee team. Senior foilist Virgile Collineau went 6-3 on Sunday.
Also performing well in men’s epee were sophomore Darius Zacharakis (4-0), Nicholas Hanahan (4-1) and Cole Mallette (4-1).
On the women’s side, the Irish were once again led by senior foilist Lee Kiefer, who went 8-0 on the day to move to 20-0 on the season. Freshman foilist Finnula Mageras was also undefeated at 4-0, while sophomore Sabrina Massialas went 7-2 Sunday. In epee, senior Eva Niklinska went 4-2 and junior Claudia Kulmacz was 9-3 in sabre.
Up Next
The Irish will return home next weekend to host the annual DeCicco Duals. The two-day event will take place on Saturday at Sunday at the Castellan Family Fencing Center.
— ND —
Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, and earned her master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University in 2013.