The Reign Continues; Irish Women Claim 10th ACC Title

DURHAM, N.C. – The reign continues. For the 10th time in program history and under head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia, the Notre Dame women’s fencing team was crowned ACC Champions as the top-seeded Irish rolled to yet another conference title, taking down Duke 18-9. 

The Notre Dame women’s team has now won the past five ACC team titles, but each of the last seven in which the Irish have competed, dating back to the 2019 season. The Irish did not compete in the 2021 conference championship due to Covid. Since joining the conference in 2015, the Irish women have missed out on just one conference championship title when competing.

The top-seeded Irish took down fifth-seeded Boston College in the opening round 21-6 before duplicating the same 21-6 score against fourth-seeded Stanford in the following round. Third-seeded North Carolina didn’t stand a chance after, as Notre Dame dominated the Tar Heels 20-6 to advance to the championship bouts before eventually taking down the Blue Devils in blowout fashion.

The sabre squad of Chelsea Delsoin, Kaitlyn Hulseburg and Siobhan Sullivan posted a dominant day, going a combined 30-6 on the day, including an 8-0 perfect record against North Carolina and an 8-1 showing against Stanford.

In foil, Meredith Palmer, Ariadna Tucker and Victoria Pevzner posted a 29-7 record. The trio was 9-0 in the opening round against Boston College and was 8-1 against the Tar Heels.

Nikita Swenson, Sedna Gandhi and Zoe Kim put together a 22-14 record in epee, most notably going 8-1 against Stanford in the second round. 

Following a dominant showing in the team competition, the Irish will turn their attention to the individual bouts tomorrow morning.

Men’s Individual Recap

In the morning, the Irish claimed five spots on the podium, including a gold medal for Ahmed Hesham as he claimed the ACC Sabre Championship.

Since 2022, the Irish men’s team has now secured 11 of the 15 individual titles handed out by the conference. Since joining the conference in 2015, Notre Dame men have won 27 total individual titles, 22 more than second place North Carolina with five.

Hesham entered the sabre competition as the third seed. He faced teammate Grant Dodrill in the opening round, winning 15-10. After that, Hesham handled Gabriel Babayev of Boston College 15-6 before winning the title over eight-seed Elden Wood of North Carolina 15-5. It’s the first career individual title for Hesham.

In epee, the Irish took two spots on the podium. Freshman Kruz Schembri, who was the top-seed, made it all the way to the finals in his ACC Championship debut, falling just short at the end to secure silver. James Sennewald took bronze after falling to Schembri in the semifinals.

Just like epee, Notre Dame had a pair find their way to the podium. Ziyuan Chen, the six-seed, upset Cristian Porras of North Carolina 15-10 in the opening round before scraping out a 15-13 win over Julian Goor of Stanford to advance to the finals, where he fell by just two to Peter Bruk of North Carolina. Nick Rusadze earned bronze after entering as the top seed, falling to eventual champion Peter Bruk in the semifinals.

The Notre Dame men will look to defend their team ACC title tomorrow afternoon.