Feb. 25, 2016
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing programs will seek to defend their Atlantic Coast Conference crowns this weekend as the Irish host the ACC Fencing Championships at the Castellan Family Fencing Center at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse.
WHAT: ACC Fencing Championships
WHO: Notre Dame, Boston College, Duke, North Carolina
WHERE: Castellan Family Fencing Center | Notre Dame, Ind.
WHEN: Feb. 27-28, 2016 | Competition begins at 8 a.m. ET both days
WATCH: ESPN3
TWITTER: @NDFencing | @ACCFencing | #ACCFencing
FANS: Free entry | Free parking at Library and Bulla lots
ACC Championships Overview
The 2016 Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships will be contested as a two-day event with individual and team championships taking place on opposite days. The men’s individual competition will kickstart the vent at 8 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by the women’s team competition at 1:30 p.m. On Sunday, the women’s individual tournament will start at 8 a.m., with the men’s team competition starting at 1:30 p.m. The team competition will be held in a round robin dual format, with total record determining the champion. The individual competition will feature pool play to determine seeding for direct elimination rounds.
The ACC once held a men’s fencing championship from 1971 to 1980, but it did not return as an ACC-sponsored sport until last season.
Irish at the ACC Championships
Both Irish men and women are the reigning ACC Champions, with the men winning the first ACC men’s title since the conference discontinued the sport in 1980 and the women claiming the first ACC women’s title in conference history. The Irish also boasted five individual champions: Jonathan Fitzgerald (men’s sabre), Virgile Collineau (men’s foil), Garrett McGrath (men’s epee), Lee Kiefer (women’s foil) and Nicole Ameli (women’s epee). Fitzgerald and Collineau will look to defend their titles, while McGrath serves as the alternate for the men’s epee squad.
The Irish claimed three additional men’s podium finishes, with Ariel DeSmet taking second in foil, while Jonah Shainberg and John Hallsten finished second and third in sabre behind Fitzgerald. On the women’s side, Nicole McKee and Madison Zeiss finished second and third in foil, and Claudia Kulmacz and Jamie Norville finished second and third in sabre. Shainberg, Hallsten, McKee and Kulmacz return for the Irish this season, while Norville serves as an alternate.
Schedule of Events
(All Times Eastern)
Saturday, February 27
Men’s Individual Tournament
8 a.m. — Foil, Epee, Sabre Pools
12 p.m. — Semifinal Bouts
12:30 p.m. — Championship Bouts
Women’s Team Tournament
1:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. Boston College | Duke v. North Carolina
2:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. North Carolina | Duke v. Boston College
3:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. Duke | North Carolina v. Boston College
4:30 p.m. — Awards
Sunday, February 28
Women’s Individual Tournament
8 a.m. — Foil, Epee, Sabre Pools
12 p.m. — Semifinal Bouts
12:30 p.m. — Championship Bouts
Men’s Team Tournament
1:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. Boston College | Duke v. North Carolina
2:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. North Carolina | Duke v. Boston College
3:30 p.m. — Notre Dame v. Duke | North Carolina v. Boston College
4:30 p.m. — Awards
Broadcast Details
For the first time, a conference fencing championship will be streamed live by ESPN3, with four hours of living coverage on both days of the competition. ESPN3 will carry the individual championship bouts beginning at 12:30 p.m. both days, followed by the team competitions.
Last Time Out: Duke Duals
It has been three weeks since the Irish last competed, when they took part in the Duke Duals on February 6 & 7 in Durham, North Carolina. The Irish men went 4-1, while the women held onto their undefeated mark this season with a 5-0 record on the weekend. The Irish saw their first action against ACC opponents, with the men besting No. 9 Duke 16-11 and North Carolina 25-2, while the women defeated Duke 17-10 and North Carolina 24-3.
ACC Fencers of the Week
The Irish have had three fencers named Atlantic Coast Conference Fencers of the Week, with two women and one man claiming the honors. Sophomore sabreuse Francesca Russo was named the ACC Female Fencer of the Week on February 3 following a dominant performance at the Northwestern Duals. Russo, the reigning NCAA Women’s Sabre Champion, boasts a 102-20 career record, including a 49-7 mark this season. On February 10, sophomore foilist Virgile Collineau and freshman sabreuse Tara Hassett swept the honors, with Collineau boating a 14-1 record the previous weekend at Duke while Hassett turned in a 13-2 mark. Collineau is 72-23 in his career, including 38-11 this season, while Hassett has compiled a 49-10 record as a rookie.
Rankings Summary
The second CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll was released on January 29, with both Irish teams coming in at No. 2.
Women’s Rankings
1. Columbia
2. Notre Dame*
3. Princeton
4. Harvard
5. Northwestern
6. Ohio State
7. St. John’s
8. Penn
9. Penn State
10. Temple
Men’s Rankings
1. Columbia
2. Notre Dame*
3. Penn
4. Penn State
5. Harvard
6. St. John’s
7. Ohio State
8. Princeton
9. Duke
10. Stanford
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To keep up with Irish fencing, visit UND.com/NDFencing, follow @NDFencing on Twitter and like Notre Dame Fencing on Facebook.
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Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant 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 and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.