Jan. 25, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams will take part in the NYU Duals on Saturday, Jan. 26 at NYU’s Coles Sports Center. Competition gets underway at 8:00 a.m. (ET). This will mark Notre Dame’s ninth trip to the Big Apple in the past 10 seasons.
This year’s field boasts four ranked teams on the men’s side and five for the women. Notre Dame will square off against Wayne State, Ohio State, St. John’s, Columbia, Yale, Stevens Tech, Northwestern and the host NYU. The Fighting Irish women enter competition ranked first in the in United States Fencing Coaches’ Association (USFCA) poll, while the Irish men are third.
Ohio State is ranked second in both the men’s and women’s poll, while St. John’s is fourth in the men’s rankings and seventh in the women’s. The Columbia women are ranked third and the men are fifth. Northwestern is sixth in the women’s poll.
The Fighting Irish fencers have been familiar faces at the NYU Duals in recent years, competing every year since 1999 with the exception of 2003. During the current decade (2000-07), the Notre Dame fencing teams are a combined 47-17 at the NYU Duals (25-7 in women’s competition, 22-10 in men’s). At the 2007 NYU duals, the Fighting Irish women won four of six matches, while the men split their six matches, with each loss coming to teams ranked among the nation’s top six.
Notre Dame at the NYU Duals (during current decade) 2000 - men 2-2, women 4-0 (6-2 combined) 2001 - men 4-0, women 1-3 (5-3 combined) 2002 - men 4-0, women 3-1 (7-1 combined) 2004 - men 4-1, women 5-0 (9-1 combined) 2005 - men 3-1, women 2-2 (5-3 combined) 2006 - men 4-1, women 4-1 (8-2 combined) 2007 - men 3-3, women 4-2 (7-5 combined)TOTALS (2000-07) - men 24-8, women 23-9 (47-17 combined)
Notre Dame opened the spring semester portion of its schedule at the Western Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Jan. 12 & 13). The Notre Dame women posted a perfect 5-0 mark, while the men tied No. 10 Stanford for first with a 4-1 record.
— ND —