DURHAM, N.C. – On the second day of the 2022 ACC Fencing Championship, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish secured both the men’s and women’s team titles. This is the 25th ACC title for the men and on the women’s side the 16th title. This is the sixth ACC Championship the Irish have won.
Both the men’s and women’s squads defeated Boston College, Duke, and North Carolina.
MEN’S TEAM
The Irish men went 3-0 in the team competition and opened their wins by defeating Boston College 16-11, North Carolina 17-10, and Duke 17-10.
They started out with wins over Boston College where there were 3-0 performances from Andrew Machovec, and Jared Smith, both in foil. The sabre squad had a 6-3 record against the Eagles.
The Irish followed up their Boston College win with a dominating performance over North Carolina. The sabre squad again dominated the strip with an 8-1 record. There were 3-0 performances from Smith, and George Bivins.
The final matchup of the day had the Irish up against Duke where the Irish pulled out their final win 17-10. Luke Linder had a great 3-0 performance on the sabre strip along with teammate Malcom Fields. Hunter Candreva tallied a 5-1 bout on the epee strip, and on the foil strip there were dominating bout wins from Machovec and Gustavo Rosavelló.
WOMEN’S TEAM
The women’s squad claimed their title when they took down Boston College 22-5, UNC 19-8, and Duke 18-9.
The women had an intense comeback for their title as the start of the final round against Duke had them down, 7-2. In a dominating 6-0 run from the foil squad and a 3-0 run from the epee and sabre squad the Irish made their comeback complete when Amanda Pirkowski clinched her bout 5-3. The epee squad tallied a 6-3 record and the foil squad secured a 7-2 record.
In the matchup against Boston College, there were dominating performances from Pirkowski, Victoria Tontcheva (2-1) , and Erika Cucala (2-1) on the epee squad. On the foil and sabre strips there were incredible performances from Karina Yaroshenko (3-0), Pustilnik (3-0), Rebeca Candescu (2-0), Atara Greenbaum (2-1), Daria Kudriavtseva (3-0), and Jadeyn Williams (3-0).
There was no letting up as Miriam Grady (3-0), and Pirkowski (3-0) dominated the epee strip against North Carolina. It was even more of an Irish win when Candescu (2-1), Paige Luong (3-0), and Pustilnik (3-0) took eight wins on the foil strip.
The Irish prepare to compete at the NCAA Fencing Championships on March 24 through March 27 in South Bend at the University of Notre Dame campus.