Lee Kiefer is a rare consecutive two-time NCAA Champion, and combined with women's swimmer Emma Reaney and men's fencer Gerek Meinhardt to be a trio of NCAA Champions.

Kiefer Clinches Title at Junior World Foil Championship

April 7, 2014

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Sunday evening brought screams of joy in Nashville, Tenn., but across eight time zones and amid powerful international combatants, University of Notre Dame women’s foilist Lee Kiefer clinched the Junior Title in the women’s foil event at the 2014 World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Kiefer has been a part of Team USA since her early teens, when she began competing at the cadet level.

“What a great weekend for our Notre Dame women student-athletes,” Irish head coach Janusz Bednarski says. “First, women’s basketball advanced to the NCAA Final and today Lee Kiefer became the Junior World Champion in women’s foil. She showed the world the strength of Notre Dame with the green shamrock on her mask, a Notre Dame sign of victory.

“Congratulations to the women’s basketball team and a big, big hug for Lee at the 2014 Fencing World Championships as gold medalist.”

Kiefer advanced throughout the tableau of 64 combatants with the No. 9 seed and allowed merely 41 touches across seven bouts. She began by ousting Cheuk Yu Lau (Hong Kong) 15-3, and posted matching 15-6 scores against Alanna Goldie (Canada) and Erica Cipressa (Italy) in the round of 32 and round of 16 respectively.

Up next in the quarterfinals, Kiefer out-touched Viktoria Alexeeva (Russia) 15-8 before downing Alexeeva’s compatriot Svetlana Tripapina 15-7 in the semifinals. She faced Eleanor Harvey (Canada) in the title bout.

Harvey did not make it easy for the American, as she and Kiefer traded touches back and forth. Kiefer was finally able to gain the upper hand, and won 15-11 as time expired.

Kiefer is one of three Irish foilists competing in Plovdiv this week, as Hazem Khazbek and Kristjan Archer will begin competition on the men’s side tomorrow (Khazbek for Egypt, Archer for Great Britain). For full results, stay tuned to usafencing.org.

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