Jan. 25, 2004

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The top-ranked Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams both posted 14-13 wins over Columbia during Sunday’s action at the NYU Duals but the young Irish men’s squad failed to hold off fourth-ranked St. John’s, losing 18-9 to halt the third-longest winning streak in the program’s storied history at 90 regular-season matches (dating back to 2000). The Notre Dame women won by the same score vs. the seventh-ranked SJU women (18-0), with both ND squads adding easy wins over Yale, NYU and Stanford.

The Columbia men are ranked fifth in the USFCA national poll while the Columbia-Barnard combined squad is ranked fourth – with both squads living up to their rankings by pushing the Irish to the limit. The loss to St. John’s ends the longest Notre Dame fencing winning streak in the last 16 seasons (since the ’84-’88 teams combined to win 98 straight).

The Notre Dame men (now 9-1) opened the day with a 21-6 win over Yale before keeping the streak alive in dramatic fashion with another 14-13 win, reprising a victory in early December over Penn State at the PSU Duals. The Irish led 8-6 but Columbia tied the score (8-8) before the teams traded the next 10 bouts. The final bout rested with freshmen sabre Patrick Ghattas, who rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat talented newcomer Alexander Krul for the decisive 5-3 win (another freshman, epeeist Adam Adjemian, similarly had won the clinching 27th bout vs. PSU).

The unbeaten Irish women (10-0) nearly squandered a 9-4 lead vs. Columbia, seeing the lead shrink to 9-8 before holding off the Lions to score the clinching win on senior Destantie Milo’s 5-4 bout vs. veteran Christina Robinson (14-12), a competitor in the ’03 NCAAs.

Several Notre Dame veterans turned in their typical dominant days, including junior epeeist Michal Sobieraj (14-1), senior foilist Forest Walton (13-2), senior women’s epeeist Kerry Walton (12-2) and the junior foil tandem of Alicja Kryczalo (13-1) and Andrea Ament (11-1). Ghattas (11-1) was among the impressive freshman performers for the Irish, as was epeeist Amy Orlando (13-0) and sabre Valerie Providenza (10-3).

The men’s action featured several highlight bouts, most notably Walton’s wins over SJU’s Nitai Kfir (5-3) and Yale’s Cory Werk (5-2), the respective ’03 NCAA runner-up and third-place finisher (both posted wins over ND junior Derek Snyder). Sobieraj also lost a 5-1 bout to SJU’s Arpad Horvath in another matchup of top NCAA veterans.

On the women’s side, the SJU sabre tandem of Julia Gelman (’03 NCAA runner-up) and Christina Crane (8th at ’03 NCAAs) posed the biggest challenge for the Notre Dame women. Freshman Kim Vincent notched an impressive sweep of the SJU pair (5-2 vs. Crane, 5-4 vs. Gelman) while Gelman notched wins over Milo (5-3) and Providenza (5-4) and Crane split with Providenza (3-5) and Milo (5-0).

Other top NCAA veterans among Sunday’s opponents included Columbia’s Emma Baratta (5th at ’03 NCAAs) – who swept her ND opponents (5-2 vs. Vincent, 5-1 vs. senior Natalia Mazur and 5-2 vs. Providenza) – and Stanford’s Eva Petschnigg (the 2000 NCAA champ while fencing for Princeton, with a 13th-place finish at the ’03 NCAAs). Ament scored a 5-1 win over Petschnigg, who edged Kryczalo (5-4) and added a 5-1 win over senior Maggie Jordan.

Both ND teams beat Yale 21-6, with the ND men besting #10 NYU 18-9 while the Irish women best NYU 24-3. The ND men then closed 17-10 vs. Stanford, with the Irish women winning 24-3.

The St. John’s men held a 6-3 edge in all three weapons vs. Notre Dame and were boosted by several newcomers, including foilists Samuel Wunderlich and Henry Kenard and epeeist Benjamin Bratton. SJU’s only men’s returners from the ’03 NCAAs are Kfir, Horvath and Isayenko – with the Irish returning just two of their six men’s competitors from the ’03 NCAAs (Sobieraj and Snyder).

Other bouts of note saw Ghattas (5-1, 5-0) and fellow freshman Matthew Stearns (5-1, 5-4) sweep the Stanford duo of Robert Owens (10th at ’03 NCAAs) and another ’03 NCAA participant, Jon Pearlstein. Sobieraj added a 4-3 win over NCAA veteran Martin Lee while Stanford’s Florida Reichling (11th at ’03 NCAAs) split vs. Walton (5-4) and Snyder (4-5), plus a 5-4 win over ND freshman Frank Bontempo. Ghattas also beat SJU’s Darin Whitmer (5-4), who participated in the 02 NCAAs (Whitmer edged Stearns, 5-4).

The longest winning streak in Notre Dame men’s fencing history spanned 122 regular-season matches (’75-’80) while the streak that just ended was eight shy of tying the program’s second-longest winning streak (98, from ’84-’88).

ND-Columbia Women’s Notes – The Lions held a 4-3 lead before the Irish rolled off six straight wins, by Kryczalo vs. Sarah Loh (5-0), Orlando vs. NCAA veteran Kim Bush (5-2), Ament vs. Cassidy Luitjen (5-2), Providenza vs. Robinson (5-1), Walton vs. Rachel Rowe (5-2) and Jordan vs. Loh (5-1) … Columbia responded with its own 4-0 run (cutting the lead to 9-8) but Kryczalo stopped the momentum with her 5-3 win over Luitjen (giving ND a 6-3 edge in foil) … Orlando then delivered a huge win in sudden-death overtime, besting Rowe (4-3) for the 11-8 lead … Columbia had one last rally and tied things up (11-11, including a 5-4 edge in epee) to put full pressure on the final five sabre bouts … Providenza then beat Veronica Padula (5-3) and Baratta countered with her win over Mazur before ND clinched the win behind 5-4 wins from Vincent (vs. Padula) and Milo (vs. Robinson) … the Lions also held the edge in sabre (5-4), with ND’s three-point advantage in foil helping provide the slim winning margin.

ND-Columbia Men’s Notes – Ghattas scored a big win out of the box, besting NCAA veteran Andre Sohn (5-4) … ND’s biggest leads came early on (2-0, 3-1, 8-6) but the score then was tied at every number from 8-13 … included in that back-and-forth battle was another key win from Walton (5-2 vs. Jeremy Sinkin, the 10th-place finisher at the ’03 NCAAs), with Snyder adding his own win over Sinkin (5-1) that tied the team competition (11-11) with five bouts to go (it also gave ND the decisive 7-2 edge in foil) … Adjemian then delivered a 5-3 win over Jerone Hsu and Sobieraj bested Michael Yablon (5-1) to put the Irish on the verge of the win, despite Columbia’s 5-4 edge in epee … Columbia staged one last push by winning two sabre bouts (en route to a 6-3) edge but Ghattas rallied from his 3-0 deficit for the exciting finish.

Record Book Update – Walton (20-3) steadily is turning in the best season of his ND career, with his 13-2 record at NYU pushing him from 38th to 27th on the ND men’s fencing career wins list (135-31, just 15 wins shy of becoming 17th ND fencer with 150-plus) … Walton also needs just two more wins to crack the top 10 of the ND men’s foil career wins list … Sobieraj (22-2 in ’03) actually has seen his career win pct. with ND drop to .929, still good for 7th in the ND record book (1st among men’s epeeists) … Snyder’s 10-4 day left his season record at 18-5 (84-18 career) … Milo (17-7 in ’03; 143-31 overall) now ranks 22nd in ND career women’s fencing wins … Kryczalo (23-4 in ’03) has seen her career win pct. dip to .919 (10-2-9), still good for 4th in ND history – with Walton 8th (.892, 115-14; 22-4 in ’03) and Ament right behind her in 9th (.891, 90-11; 21-3 in ’03) … Mazur (.862, 94-15; 6-2 in ’03) also ranks on the ND career win pct. list (in 14th) while Milo has moved up to 19th (.822) … Walton moved into 9th on the ND women’s epee wins list.

Check back to und.com later in the week for complete team stats and a bout-by-bout listing of both exciting finishes vs. Columbia.