DURHAM, North Carolina — The fifth-ranked Notre Dame men’s fencing team kicked off the first day of the Duke Duals with another strong showing on Saturday at Card Gym in Durham, North Carolina. The men’s team finished undefeated for the third straight weekend after going 5-0 on the day, including wins over No. 10 Duke and No. 4 Penn State.
The Irish started quickly in the morning session, winning the first three matches of the day and the smallest margin of victory was seven.
The first match was a 20-7 win over Brandeis before facing off with the host Blue Devils. The foil (7-2) and sabre (6-3) teams help lift the Irish over Duke by a score of 17-10. Andrew Machovec and Guram Lortkipanidze went 3-0 against the Blue Devils.
In the final round before the lunch break, the Irish defeated MIT 19-8 led by 3-0 performances by Darius Zacharakis, Joseph Marino and Malcolm Fields.
After the lunch break the Irish went up against their strongest competition of the day in fourth-ranked Penn State. The sabre squad (8-1) led the way against the Nittany Lions and the Irish came out on top 16-11. Fields and Machovec notched their second 3-0 performance of the day while Bivins also finished 3-0.
In the final match of the day, the Irish took down Johns Hopkins 26-1 to finish the day with a 5-0 record. The sabre and foil teams were the top producers for the Irish, both finishing with a 36-9 record.
UP NEXT
The third-ranked Irish women’s team will take to the strip tomorrow for the final day of the Duke Duals. They will also face five times throughout the day and the first match starts at 8 a.m. ET against Brandeis.
Results
Duke Duals Day 1
Card Gym
Durham, NC
Feb. 8, 2020
Men’s Results
No. 5 Notre Dame 20, Brandeis 7
Sabre (6-3): Malcolm Fields 2-1, Guram Lortkipanidze 2-1, George Bivins 2-1
Foil (8-1): Marcello Olivares 3-0, Andrew Machovec 2-0, Alexander Ju 1-0, Matthew Tichacek 1-0, Joseph Marino 1-1
Epee (6-3): Darius Zacharakis 3-0, Harrison Kimatian 2-1, Valentin Matveev 1-2
No. 5 Notre Dame 17, No 10 Duke 10
Sabre (6-3): Lortkipanidze 3-0, Bivins 2-1, Fields 1-2
Foil (7-2): Machovec 3-0, Olivares 2-1, Marino 2-1
Epee (4-5): Josiah Broughton 2-1, Joshua Zhang 1-2, Zacharakis 1-2,
No. 5 Notre Dame 19, MIT 8
Sabre (7-2): Fields 3-0, Lortkipanidze 2-1, Bivins 2-1
Foil (6-3): Marino 3-0, Tichacek 2-1, Ju 1-2
Epee (6-3): Zacharakis 3-0, Zhang 2-1, Broughton 1-2
No. 5 Notre Dame 16, No. 4 Penn State 11
Sabre (8-1): Fields 3-0, Bivins 3-0, Lortkipanidze 2-1
Foil (6-3): Machovec 3-0, Marino 2-0, Ju 0-1, Tichacek 0-1
Epee (2-7): Broughton 1-2, Zhang 1-2, Zacharakis 0-3
No. 5 Notre Dame 26, Johns Hopkins 1
Sabre (9-0): Bivins 3-0, Fields 3-0, Lortkipanidze 3-0
Foil (9-0): Ju 3-0, Marino 3-0, Tichacek 3-0
Epee (8-1): Zacharakis 3-0, Zhang 3-0, Kimatian 2-1
—ND—