March 18, 2005
HOUSTON, Texas – Notre Dame’s Michal Sobieraj (Krakow, Poland) won the epee title in the final bout of his college career while sophomore Patrick Ghattas (Beaverton, Ore.) made an impressive run to the sabre final, as the Notre Dame men’s fencers completed competition at the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championship. The top-ranked Irish women’s team next will take to the strips on Saturday and Sunday, in continuing action at the Brown Convention Center.
(Note: this men’s recap now includes additional notes, quotes and photos.)
Notre Dame remains one of four teams in the running for the NCAA team title but the Irish will need a strong effort from their six entrants in the women’s bouts. Ohio State – which qualified just five women’s fencers and now must hold off teams that are chasing with the full allotment of women’s entrants – leads after the second day of bouting with 94 points, followed by St. John’s (84), Penn State (77) and Notre Dame (70). St. John’s was the only team to qualify the maximum 12 total fencers but the Red Storm women are ranked just 10th in the national polls, giving Notre Dame and Penn State a chance to make up ground on the final two days.
Sophomre sabre Matt Stearns delivered four more wins at the ’05 NCAAs than in ’04, finishing 10th for All-America honors (all photos by Pete LaFleur, unless otherwise noted).
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Freshman foilist Jakub Jedrkowiak (Leszno, Poland) placed seventh (15-8) and sophomore sabre Matt Stearns (Minnetrista, Minn.) was 10th (14-9), giving Notre Dame four All-Americans out of five entered in the men’s competition. Sophomore Aaron Adjemian (El Paso, Texas) won five bouts in epee to round out the Irish entrants.
Sobieraj – who placed 10th at the 2002 NCAAs, was the ’03 runner-up and then finished third in ’04 – joins foilist Molly Sullivan (’88) as the only Notre Dame senior fencers ever to win the NCAA title. He became the 13th Notre Dame fencer (but just the second epeeist) to earn All-America honors (top-12) in four seasons.
The 6-2, 180-pound righthander joins an elite group of 11 Notre Dame men’s fencers who have won the NCAA title, with that group including two-time sabre champ Mike Sullivan. The program’s previous epee champions include Don Tadrowski (’55), Bjorn Vaggo (’78), Ola Harstrom (’83) and Jubba Beshin (’90). It had been 14 years since a Notre Dame men’s epeeist had appeared in the NCAA final (Beshin also was the ’91 runner-up) and five years since any Irish fencer had reached the final (sabre Gabor Szelle won in 2000 and foilist Ozren Debic was runner-up).
Sobieraj went 6-3 in Friday’s bouts to finish second in the round-robin (18-5) before besting Ohio State’s Denis Tolkachev in the semifinals and edging fellow Poland native Marek Petraszek of Wayne State in an exciting 15-13 final (those bouts do not count to the team score).
Patrick Ghattas (left) scored a huge early win over Ohio State two-time defending NCAA champ Adam Crompton (pictured).
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Ghattas (18-5) closed with a 7-2 record in the round-robin that included a 5-2 win over two-time NCAA champion Adam Crompton of Ohio State. He tied for third and earned the fourth seed for the semifinals, knocking off top-seeded Franz Boghicev of Penn State (15-10) before losing a 15-12 final to St. John’s standout Serjey Isayenko, one of the world’s top-ranked young sabre fencers.
JOINING THE SHORT LIST – Just 10 previous ND men’s fencers had won NCAA titles, including the above-mentioned epeeists (Tadrowski in ’55, Vaggo in ’78, Harstrom in ’83 and Beshin in ’90), foilists Pat Gerard (’77), Andy Bonk (’79) and Charles-Higgs Coulthard (’84) and sabres Mike Sullivan (’77 and ’78), Luke La Valle (’98) and Gabor Szelle (’00 … the program’s NCAA champions now include five epeeists, four sabres (counting Sullivan twice) and three foilists.
SUPER SENIOR – Michal Sobieraj is just the second ND fencer (men or women) to win the NCAA title and the first in 17 years, since foilist Molly Sullivan won in 1988 … five previous ND men’s fencers reached the NCAA title bout but claimed to end their careers with the gold medal.
Michal Sobieraj (right) survived a 15-13 bout with fellow Poland native Marek Petraszak (pictured) to claim the 2005 NCAA epee title.
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THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM – Sobieraj’s third trip to the NCAA semifinals finally resulted in him winning the gold medal, after taking home the silver in ’03 (lost 9-8 bout in overtime to Air Force standout and ’04 U.S. Olympian Seth Kelsey) and the bronze in ’04 … no previous ND epeeist (or foilist, for that mater) had claimed three-plus NCAA medals while the only sabre to do so was Mike Sullivan in the late 1970s (’77 and ’78 champion, ’79 runner-up, 3rd in ’76) … just three other ND fencers have reached the NCAA semifinals three-plus times: foilist Charles Higgs-Coulthard (’84 champion, 3rd in ’86, 4th in ’85 and ’87), sabre Leszek Nowosielski (’91 runner-up, 3rd in ’90, 4th in ’88, plus 5th in `89) and Sobieraj’s former teammate, foilist Ozren Debic (’00 runner-up, 4th in ’02 and ’03, plus 5th in ’01) … four ND women’s fencers (all foilists) have claimed three-plus NCAA medals, including current seniors Alicja Kryczalo (’02-’04 champ) and Andrea Ament (’02 and ’04 runner-up, 3rd in ’03), plus Molly Sullivan (’77 and ’78 champion, ’79 runner-up, 3rd in ’87) and Sara Walsh (’96 and ’97 runner-up, 3rd in ’98, plus 5th in ’99) … Kryczalo and Ament could join Mike Sullivan and Molly Sullivan as the only four-time medalists in ND fencing history while fifth-year women’s epeeist Kerry Walton (’02 champion, ’04 runner-up, 5th in ’03) could claim her third career medal.
Sobieraj became just the second ND men’s fencer to be a three-time NCAA medalist.
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IN THE ND RECORD BOOKS – Despite his 10th-place finish at the ’02 NCAAs, Sobieraj ended his career ranked 3rd in ND men’s fencing history (and tops among epeeists) for wins in the NCAA round-robin (68-24) … sabre Mike Sullivan went 95-9 from ’76-’79 while foilist Ozren Debic was 73-19 in ’00-’03 NCAA round-robin bouts.
DYNAMIC DUO – Sobieraj and Patrick Ghattas became the first pair of ND men’s fencers to reach the NCAA final since 2000, when Gabor Szelle won the sabre title and Ozren Debic was the foil runner-up … only three other ND men’s teams have featured multiple fencers in the NCAA final, including three in 1991 (epeeist Jubba Beshin, sabre Leszek Nowosielski and foil Noel Young, all runner-ups) and ’78 (sabre champ Mike Sullivan, epee champ Bjorn Vaggo and foil runner-up Pat Gerard), after two in ’77 (champions Sullivan and Gerard).
Patrick Ghattas (left) and Matt Stearns combined for the 2nd-highest victory total in the NCAA sabre standings.
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WEAPON BREAKDOWN – Among the four contending teams, OSU posted the most wins in sabre (35), followed by ND (32), PSU (32) and SJU (27) … in epee, OSU won 30 bouts, SJU 29, ND 23 and PSU 13 (one entrant) … in foil, PSU won 32, OSU 29, SJU 28 and ND 15 (one entrant) … four previous ND teams have finished 1st in the NCAA men’s sabre bouts while the ’05 pair of Ghattas and Stearns join five other Irish sabre squad (’85, ’90, ’91, ’97, ’01) that have posted the 2nd-most wins at the NCAAs
TIGHT-BOUT BATTLES – Notre Dame nearly ended up even in one-touch bouts during the men’s competition (11-13), going 5-2 in sabre, 5-8 in epee and 1-3 in foil during one-touch bouts.
HEAD-TO-HEAD SHOWDOWNS – The ND men posted an 11-17 combined record vs. fellow contenders Ohio State (4-6), St. John’s (5-5) and Penn State (2-6) … the ND sabres split 12 bouts vs. the contenders (3-1 vs. SJU, 2-2 vs. OSU, 1-3 vs. PSU) while the epeeists were 3-7 (1-3 vs. OSU and SJU, 1-1 vs. PSU) and foilist Jakub Jedrkowiak was 2-4 (1-1 vs. SJU and OSU, 0-2 vs. PSU).
Notre Dame head coach Janusz Bednarski has worked with six sabre finalists during his 11 total seasons with the Irish fencing program.
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MEN BEHIND THE SCENES – ND head coach Janusz Bednarski and assistant Zoltan Dudas have played key roles in the development of Sobieraj, Ghattas and several other fencers during their years with the Irish fencing program (Bednarski since ’95, Dudas since ’02) … Bednarski has coached eight sabre semifinalists, six finalists and three champions: Luke LaValle (’98), Gabor Szelle (’00) and Valerie Providenza (’04) … his sabre runner-up fencers have included Szelle (’99), Bill Lester (’95) and Ghattas (’05) while Lester was 3rd in ’97 and Lester 4th in ’96 … Dudas gas coached 14 NCAA semifinalists, 10 finalists and five champions: current senior foilist Alicja Kryczalo (’02-’04), fifth-year women’s epeeist Kerry Walton (’02) and Sobieraj (’05) … Dudas has seen five others reach the title bout – current senior foilist Andrea Ament (’02, ’04), Sobieraj (’03), foilist Ozren Debic (’00) and Walton (’04) – while Ament was 3rd in ’03, Sobieraj was 3rd in ’04, and Debic took 4th in ’02 and ’03.
In just four seasons on the Notre Dame staff, Zoltan Dudas (left) has coached five epeeists/foilist who have won the NCAA title and five others who have been runner-up.
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SOBIERAJ-TOLKACHEV SEMIFINAL RECAP – Tolkachev had beaten Sobieraj earlier in the round-robin (5-4), much as he had in ’04 when Sobieraj came back to beat him in the bronze-medal bout (15-8) … Sobieraj finished with a narrow 7-6 series edge vs. Tolkachev in college bouts … the ’05 semifinal match moved quickly thanks to a fast start by the ND senior … with the score 3-2, Sobieraj netted the next four touches on an attack, a pair of counterattacks and a fleche to take a 7-2 lead … two double touches brought the score to 9-4 at the first break … another double touch and a Sobieraj toe touch gave the Polish native a comfortable 11-5 lead … the six-point cushion forced Tolkachev on the offensive and Sobieraj was able to retain a healthy lead before winning the 15-9 bout on a fleche with 56 seconds left in the second period.
Sobieraj parries an attack from countryman Marek Petraszek in the title bout.
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SOBIERAJ-PETRASZEK FINAL RECAP – Sobieraj defeated Petraszak earlier in the day during the round-robin (5-2) but had been just 2-5 in previous ’04 and ’05 college bouts vs. his longtime friend and countryman (Petraszak was 7th at the ’04 NCAAs) … Sobieraj scored first with a touch on Petraszek’s arm … a pair of double touches preceded two more Sobieraj points that gave the senior epeeist a 5-2 lead … Petraszek scored next to close the lead to 5-3 when the first period ended … the next two points were exchanged before Sobieraj opened a five-touch lead at 9-4 … unlike the semifinal bout against Tolkachev, Sobieraj was not able to hold the lead as Petraszek snuck in a touch against his tiring countryman to bring the bout to a 12-9 score at the second break … a weapon malfunction worked in Sobieraj’s favor, as he was able to catch his breath for an extra minute … Petraszek struck first following the second intermission before Sobieraj crept closer to 15 on a double touch and a single touch … down 14-11, Petraszek scored two touches to raise the tension in the room before Sobieraj scored the final point of the 15-13 bout.
Two late losses in the round-robin prevented Sobieraj from claiming the top seed.
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SOBIERAJ ROUND-ROBIN NOTES – had clinched a spot in the semifinals (17-3,after six rounds) but still had a shot at the top seed entering final round, before suffering 5-4 losses to Tolkachev (4-5) and Dana Sanford of Drew … ended up as the 2-seed (18-5) behind Petraszak (20-3) while Tolkachev took the 3-seed (17-6) and U.S. Olympian Soren Thompson of Princeton slid in as the 4-seed (16-7, +25 in total-point indicators) … Thompson edged two-time champ Arpad Horvath (16-7, +21) of St. John’s for the final spot in the semifinals … Sobieraj’s day-2 wins included the 5-2 win over Petraszak, 5-0 vs. Princeton two-time All-American Ben Solomon (5th in ’03, 19th in ’04, 9th in ’05) and 5-1 vs. fellow Poland native Wojciech Dudek of Wayne State, another three-time NCAA participant (’04 All-American) … went 7-1 vs. Dudek in ’04 and ’05 college bouts … beat Solomon in each of three NCAA matchups … also beat OSU’s Christian Rivera (5-1), Columbia ’04 All-American Bill Verigan (5-4) and Jason Henderson of Rutgers (5-2; avenging 5-3 loss at ’04 NCAAs) in day-2 bouts, with early 5-2 loss to fellow four-time All-American Thompson (’01 champion, ’02 runner-up) … Petraszak handled Thompson in the semifinals and Thompson then edged Tolkachev for 3rd-place (15-14) … looking back at Sobieraj’s day-1 bouts, his top wins came vs. 6th-place finisher and two-time All-American Julian Rose of Harvard (5-3), 8th-place finisher Arthur Urman of PSU (5-3), 10th-place finisher Benjamin Bratton of St. John’s (5-2, avenging loss in ’04 NCAA semifinals), 11th-place finisher Nathan Bragg of Duke (5-3) and Air Force two-time All-American (12th in ’05) Jason Stockdale of Air Force (5-3).
Sobieraj met with members of the media to discuss his NCAA title (photo by Greg Touney).
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SOBIERAJ COMMENTS – “I had some strategy before the final bout. I did well in the first round and I was up by five points. But then I got tired and couldn’t do what I wanted to do. Then, Marek scored three easy touches on me in a row. It was pretty close, getting up to 14-13 which made me nervous. … In the NCAAs, that’s my best result so far. I had almost all the other places on the podium. My sophomore year I got second, last year I got third and this year I got first, so I’ve gotten all the possible results. … There aren’t too many surprises between me and Marek. We’ve fenced each other for the last seven or eight years and know each other pretty well. … I was up by five points and then Marek scored a few touches on me and I got pretty nervous at the end. But I won. … It feels great to win, to be honest, to finish my career well as a senior and finally be champion. I still haven’t realized it, but it might come to me tonight or tomorrow maybe.”
ND HEAD COACH Janusz Bednarski ON SOBIERAJ – “I think that he wanted to have this medal. (Assistant coach Zoltan Dudas) talked with him a lot and I think he was showing interest to finish his career like this and the whole two days he was doing what he wanted. With his talent, he deserves this. He made it, and I think he made it for Notre Dame too because he’s part of the Notre Dame group and it will always be in the history that he was a national champion. … He deserved because of his level and his performance. He didn’t have the luck in early NCAA tournaments. As a sophomore in Colorado Springs, he lost in overtime by one touch. So I think it’s very good results and a very strong performance and Zoltan, who coached him for four years, finally has the opportunity to see him win the gold medal. … The final bout for Sobieraj was a beautiful bout. Both fencers know each other and are excellent fencers.”
Ghattas (left) and Penn State’s Franz Boghicev call for the touch during their intense round-robin bout (Ghattas lost 5-4 but won the rematch in a 15-10 semifinal).
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GHATTAS-BOGHICEV SEMIFINAL RECAP – The bout tied (2-2 before Ghattas ripped off six of the next eight points to take an 8-4 lead … Bochicev then crept back into the bout, scoring a touch on a short riposte to bring it to 9-8 before Ghattas went on a four-point run en route to the 15-10 win … in the earlier round-robin matchup, Boghicev raced to a 4-0 lead but Ghattas came back to tie … both fencers then raced up and down the strip before Boghicev landed the winning touch.
GHATTAS-ISAYENKO FINAL RECAP – Ghattas, who shut out Isayenko in a round-robin bout on Thursday (5-0), won the first two touches of the title bout on a counterattack and then a stopcut … the fencers then traded points for the next few touches on a number of successful attacks to bring the score to 6-5 in favor of Isayenko (the ’04 NCAA runner-up and 3rd-place finisher in ’03) … the Ukrainian then took the next three on a preparation, stopcut and parry riposte, before Ghattas countered with his own three-touch run on three successive preparations … two solid attacks by each fencer followed by a counterattack by Ghattas knotted the score at 10-10 … Isayenko then had another three-touch run but Ghattas clawed back to make it 13-12 with two good attack maneuvers … the SJU standout closed out the match with an attack and a parry riposte to win 15-12 and claim the title.
Ghattas (right) and St. John’s standout Sergey Isayenko waged an exciting NCAA title bout (pictured).
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GHATTAS ROUND-ROBIN NOTES – The strong 7-2 closing effort included the key early bout vs. OSU’s Crompton (5-2), his third straight win in college bouts vs. the two-time NCAA champ … the final round-robin touches for Ghattas ended up being crucial as he qualified for the semifinals based on total-point indicators … his other day-2 wins included 5-1 over Detroit All-American Jaroslaw Jelinek, Stanford’s Jon Pearlstein and Yale’s Chris Peterson, 5-2 over Penn State 2004 All-American Ian Farr, and 5-4 over NYU ’04 All-American Andrew Magee and Stanford’s Curtis Andrus … has split four college bouts vs. his Oregon Fencing Alliance clubmate Farr in the ’04 and ’05 college seasons (Farr won 5-3 at the ’04 NCAAs) … yet to lose to Magee in four college bouts … dropped Friday bouts to Boghicev (4-5) and OSU three-time All-American Jason Rogers (3-5), a 2004 U.S. Olympian who ended up 18-6 but two touches behind Ghattas in the standings … ended up splitting four bouts vs. Rogers during ’05 college season, winning the final two (5-3 at Regional) … Ghattas and Rogers tied with Harvard’s Tim Hagamen for 3rd in the round-robin standings (18-5; improving on his 13-10 record at the ’04 NCAAs) but Hagamen was the 3-seed with a +48 in total indicators (Ghattas was +46, Rogers +44) … Isayenko beat Hagamen in a tight semifinal (15-13) while Hagamen beat Boghicev in a 15-11 bout for 3rd-place … Crompton (17-6, +29) ended up in 7th place … in a review of Thursday’s bouts, Ghattas had notched some key early wins over Hagamen (5-4), Columbia two-time All-American and 6th-place finisher Alexander Krul (5-1; took 6th) and 9th-place finisher Paul Reyfman of Columbia (5-3).
(note: check back later for comments from Ghattas on his runner-up performance)
BEDNARSKI ON GHATTAS – “We wanted a first-place medal for Ghattas. He lost against an excellent fencer. Isayenko from a team that medaled at the world championship. It was a beautiful bout. When we sit down, we know that we should be happy that he was second. He is the best American sabre fencer in college right now and he did some beautiful bouting. Ghattas is a hard-worker. It’s not easy to win against 23 great fencers but he made a very good result and tomorrow he will be happier than he is today. … I think that Ghattas was changing strategy during his bouting with Boghicev. He changed strategy when he was losing in the round-robin, but maybe it was too late. When you’re down 4-0, it is hard. … In the final against Isayenko, what happened when he changed strategies – Patrick started to make touches, he didn’t attack his hand like he did a couple of times before, so he started on the upper part of the body with a thrust. It worked two or three times, and then maybe he did it for too long. Maybe he should have stopped the bout and think it over. Isayenko fences for Ukraine, one of the best teams in the world in men’s sabre. He won the national Ukraine championships and beat the world champion in that tournament. … I had been observing Boghicev and saw that he was in such good shape that I thought Ghattas might have a problem. But in the 15-touch bout, Ghattas made it look pretty easy.”
Jakub Jedrkowiak had a solid debut at the NCAAs, placing 7th in the foil competition.
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JEDRKOWIAK NOTES – closed 6-3 on Friday to finish 15-8 and tied with Stanford three-time All-America Steve Gerberman for 7th (he edged Gerberman in total-point indicators, +27 to +24) … the top six finishers in the round-robin were Penn State’s four-time All-American Non Panchan (20-3), OSU’s Boaz Ellis (who repeated as NCAA champ) and Penn’s Ron Berkowski (both 18-5), NYU’s Gabe Sinkin (17-6), Nitai Kfir of St. John’s (17-6) and Columbia’s Scott Sugimoto (16-7) … his day-2 bouts included 5-2 win over Sugimoto and 5-0 victory over his Columbia teammate Jeremy Sinkin (a ’02 and ’04 All-American) … other day-2 wins included 5-0 vs. M.I.T.’s Spencer Sugimoto, 5-3 over Nick Machuk of Johns Hopkins, and 5-2 vs. Fullerton’s Alex Decker and UC San Diego’s Cameron Sprowles … his final losses were vs. the PSU duo of Panchan (1-5) and Jeff Chang (3-5) and Fullerton’s Brian Fraser (4-5) … NYU’s Sinkin upset Panchan (the ’02 and ’03 NCAA champ and ’01 runner-up) in a 15-7 semifinal while Ellie beat Berkowsky in the semifinals (15-11) and Sinkin in the 15-8 final (Berkowsky beat Panchan, 15-8, for 3rd-place) … looking back at Jedrkowiak’s day-1 results, his top wins came vs. ’05 eventual runner-up and two-time All-American Sinkin of NYU (5-3), Stanford’s Gerberman (5-2), SJU ’04 All-American Henry Kennard (5-4), Harvard ’04 All-American Enoch Woodhouse (5-3) and Michael Kantor of Vassar (5-1), who ended up 10th in the ’05 standings.
Matt Stearns delivered an early 5-0 win over Ohio State All-American and 2004 Olympian Jason Rogers, sending the Irish sabre squad on to a strong second day.
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STEARNS NOTES – closed 6-3 to attain his goal by totaling several more wins (14-9) than he did at the ’04 NCAAs (10-13), en route to All-America honors … he ended up 10th (+5 in total-point indicators) but actually was tied for 8th with Igoe of Rutgers (+21) and Columbia’s Reyfman (+20) … Stearns actually defeated Reyfman in the day-1 bouting (5-4) … his 6-3 record on day-2 included the 5-0 shutout of OSU’s Rogers, after dropping four previous bouts vs. Rogers in the ’05 college season … his other Friday wins included 5-2 vs. Stanford’s Pearlstein and Yale’s Peterson, 5-3 vs. NYU’s Magee and Stanford’s Andrus, and 5-4 vs. Detroit’s Jaroslaw Jelinek, with losses vs. PSU’s Boghicev and Farr (both 1-5) and OSU’s Crompton (2-5) … the win over Andrus avenged a 5-1 loss from the ’04 NCAAs … looking back at his day-1 results, Stearns’ top wins at the ’05 NCAAs also included bouts vs. 9th-place finisher Reyfman (5-4)
Sophomore epeeist Aaron Adjemian knocked off Wayne State All-American Wojciech Dudek in Friday’s action while competing in his home state of Texas.
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ADJEMIAN NOTES – his Friday wins came vs. Wayne State’s Dudek (4-3) and Columbia’s Verigan (5-4) … had lost three previous college bouts vs. Dudek and dropped ’04 bout to Verigan … suffered tough 5-4 losses on day-2 vs. OSU’s Rivera and Henderson of Rutgers, also losing 5-2 bouts to Petraszak and Princeton’s Solomon … his other Friday bouts were vs. OSU’s Tolkachev (1-5), former NCAA champ Thompson (0-5) and Drew’s Sanford (1-5).
OTHER BEDNARSKI COMMENTS ON THE MEN’S BOUTS – “Two or three bouts more and Jedrkowiak would have been fighting for a medal. Stearns win over Rogers was very important for us, if he had lost everything would have looked worse and it would have been harder to fence. He fenced smartly and with such a will to win that it helped him. He quieted Ohio State and then Crompton lost to Ghattas. It was nice to see this performance from Stearns, who raised his level so dramatically that he is an All-American this year. … Jedrkowiak is a young boy here in a large competition. He fenced well and with emotion. Sometimes it was too much emotion. Let’s hope that next year he will have more experience and be even a better fencer.”
BEDNARSKI GENERAL COMMENTS AT MID-POINT OF NCAAs – “I should feel good because, before the tournament, we made plans and we’re performing exactly to the plans. I was planning on having in the range of 72-73 bouts and we have 70. So it’s OK, it’s like we planned. We didn’t have the luck in many 5-4 bouts. It feels like everything is against us. We could have jumped ahead of our plans if we would have had luck in, let’s say, three or four more of those close bouts. … Generally, we have had a good tournament. Our kids mostly fenced well. Having four All-Americans on the men’s side is pretty good. And what is very important is that we didn’t lose a chance to fence with one less player in the field. After half of the game, we still have a chance to win. I didn’t think that it would be so close with one less fencer. I was afraid that it would be over after `the halftime.’ I was thinking that Ohio State might escape us or other teams would get away and that we would have to chase the bronze medalist. … I think that the women will fence well. It will be very hard to win but we have a chance. I know that they will fight tomorrow and maybe these 5-4 bouts will be on our side. There is a lot of pressure on the women. We will cheer them and we also have been a team that wins and loses together.”