Men's Fencers Make Claim For Top Ranking With Four Wins At NYU

Jan. 27, 2002

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Freshman men’s epeeist Michal Sobieraj (Krakow, Poland) won the decisive bout in overtime as the second-ranked Notre Dame men’s fencing team completed an undefeated showing at Sunday’s NYU Duals with an action-packed 14-13 win over top-ranked and defending NCAA champs St. John’s. The second-ranked Irish women won their first three matchups before losing a tightly-contested 15-12 match versus the top-ranked SJU women, who combined with the Red Storm men to win the 2001 NCAA championship.

The Notre Dame men pushed their regular-season dual match winning streak to 45 (spanning three seasons), just five wins shy of matching the third-longest winning streak in the program’s storied history. The Irish men also beat seventh-ranked Yale (20-7), No. 5 Columbia (19-8) and host NYU (19-8). The Notre Dame women-who opened with four wins at the Northwestern Invitational-added wins Sunday versus eighth-ranked Yale (17-10), No. 9 Columbia-Barnard (19-8) and NYU (24-3).

The ND and SJU men were tied 13-13 as Sobieraj and SJU’s Arpad Horvath ended regulation time in a 2-2 tie. A coin flip awarded Horvath “priority” during the one-minute overtime (meaning he-and SJU-would win if the OT ended without any scoring) but Sobieraj came through with the clinching touch for the 3-2 win.

Sobieraj’s impressive debut in college dual-meet action included a 12-0 record, leading the way for Notre Dame’s highly-touted freshman foursome that combined for a 40-7 record. Freshman women’s foilists Alicja Kryczalo (Gdansk, Poland, 10-1) and Andrea Ament (Cleveland, Ohio, 10-2) won 20 of 23 bouts in their college team fencing debuts (they were missed the Northwestern meet due to a World Cup event) while freshman men’s foilist Derek Snyder posted a solid 8-4 record, with two of his losses coming versus SJU All-Americans (plus a 5-4 win over Columbia All-American Kevin Eriksen).

Other top performers for the Irish included the three men’s captains-junior foilist Ozren Debic (10-1, 94-6 career record), senior sabre Andre Crompton (9-2, 117-18), and junior epeeist Jan Viviani (9-2, 85-13)-plus junior men’s sabre Matt Fabricant (9-3, 72-12), junior women’s epee captain Anna Carnick (8-2, 112-31), sophomore women’s epeeist Kerry Walton (9-3, 20-4 for season) and sophomore women’s sabre Destanie Milo (8-4, 59-15).

Sabre proved to be the decisive weapon in both ND-SJU matchups, with all three Irish men’s sabres-Crompton, Fabricant and fifth-year Andrzej Bednarski-posting 2-1 records versus the Red Storm (who fenced without defending NCAA sabre champ Ivan Lee, who was overseas competing with Team USA) while the SJU women’s sabre squad went 7-2 vs. the Irish. SJU narrowly edged ND in men’s epee and foil (both 5-4) while the Irish women won by those scores in epee and foil.

The Irish men won six of 10 one-touch bouts vs. SJU while the ND women were 3-2 in one-touch bouts versus the Red Storm.

The men’s epee squad posted Notre Dame’s best record at NYU (27-9), followed closely by the women’s epee and foil teams (both 26-10) and the men’s sabre unit (25-11).

ND-SJU RECAP

• Debic’s only loss of the day came 5-3 versus rival Joseph Fisher (the 4th-place finisher at the 2001 NCAAs) but he posted a 5-1 win over Jonathan Tiomkin (6th at ’01 NCAAs) … Snyder lost to both of the SJU All-Americans, as did senior Steve Mautone.
• Ament (5-2) and Kryczalo (5-0) both posted impressive wins over All-American Elizabeth Thottam (10th at ’01 NCAAs) while also sweeping 2001 NCAA participant Jean Hergenhan (5-0, 5-1) … junior Liza Boutsikaris added a 5-1 win over Hergenham but all three ND fencers lost to Irina Khouade.
• Sobieraj’s undefeated march included a dominating 5-0 win over All-American Doron Levitt … Viviani saw his six-match college winning streak vs. Levit end in overtime (5-4), also losing to Arpad Horvath (5-1) and beating Anton Guerevich (5-2) … senior Brian Casas also competed for the Irish.
• Carnick posted a 5-4 win over 2001 NCAA runner-up Arlene Stevens (reprising their 2001 NCAA round-robin score) while ND junior Meagan Call added her own impressive 5-4 win over defending NCAA champ Emesa Takacs (she also beat Takacs in the 2001 NCAAs) … Stevens beat Call (5-2) and Takacs topped Carnick (5-4) while Walton lost to both of the SJU All-Americans (5-3 vs. Stevens, 5-4 vs. Takacs) in her first college team event.
• Fabricant held off Darrin Whitmer (5-4) but lost by the same score to Carlo Smith while Bednarski and Crompton beat Smith (5-4) and lost to Whitmer (5-1) by identical scores.
• Milo picked up ND’s only wins in women’s sabre, highlighted by a 5-4 bout versus defending NCAA runner-up Marisa Mustilli (she lost 5-3 to Crane).

NOTES FROM OTHER MATCHES

• Yale All-American women’s sabre Sada Jacobson swept her ND competitors but Ament posted a 5-3 win versus Yale All-American Zane Selkirk (9th at 2001 NCAAs) while Milo beat Yale All-American Sophie Jones (5-4).
• Columbia-Barnard All-American Katie Cavan split a pair of 5-2 bouts versus Kryczalo (win for ND) and Ament (win for CB) while CB All-American Monica Conley lost to Walton (5-1) and beat Call (5-4) and Carnick (5-2) … Debic (5-1) joined Snyder (5-4) in beating Columbia All-American Kevin Eriksen.

ND Men 4-0 (2nd in USFCA Poll)      ND Women 7-1 (2nd in USFCA Poll)Notre Dame 20, (7) Yale 7       Notre Dame 17, (8) Yale 10Notre Dame 19, (5) Columbia 8       Notre Dame 19, (9) Columbia-Barnard 8Notre Dame 19, NYU 8            Notre Dame 24, NYU 3Notre Dame 14, (1) St. John's 13    (1) St. John's 15, Notre Dame 12
Epee         YU  COL NYU SJU Day     Career Brian Casas           2-1 3-0 1-1 0-3 6-5     125-50Michael Macaulay        0-1 ----    0-1 ----    0-2     9-7Michal Sobieraj       3-0 3-0 3-0 3-0 12-0        12-0Jan Viviani           2-0 3-0 3-0 1-2 9-2     85-13                7-2 9-0 7-2 4-5
FoilMatt Castellan          0-1 ----    0-2 ----    0-3     16-7ozren Debic         2-0 3-0 3-0 2-1 10-1        94-6Steve Mautone           1-2 0-3 0-1 1-2 2-8     111-52Derek Snyder             3-0 3-0 1-2 1-2 8-4     8-4                6-3 6-3 4-5 4-5
SabreAndrzej Bednarski       2-1 0-3 2-1 2-1 6-6     125-27Andr? Crompton          2-1 3-0 2-0 2-1 9-2     117-18Matt Fabricant         3-0 1-2 3-0 2-1 9-3     72-12Neal Salisian           ----    ----    1-0 ----    1-0     14-8                7-2 4-5 8-1 6-3
       YU  C-B NYU SJU Week    Season  CareerEpeeMeagan Call           2-1 0-3 3-0 2-1 7-5 14-9        107-32Anna Carnick         3-0 2-1 1-0 2-1 8-2 18-3        112-31Susan Clark         ----    ----    2-0 ----    2-0 3-0     3-0Kirsten Housing         ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    0-2     0-2Kerry Walton         2-1 3-0 3-0 1-2 9-3 20-3        20-3                7-2 5-4 9-0 5-4
FoilAndrea Ament         3-0 2-1 3-0 2-1 10-2    10-2        10-2Liza Boutsikaris     2-1 1-2 2-0 1-2 6-5 18-5        108-20Maggie Jordan           ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    11-0        11-0Alicja Kryczalo           2-0 3-0 3-0 2-1 10-1    10-1        10-1Kathryn Schuster        0-1 ----    0-1 ----    0-2 1-4     5-8Michelle Sutton           ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    6-4     30-21                7-2 6-3 8-1 5-4
SabreDanielle Davis          ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    2-0     2-0Mary-Hope Feher         ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    0-2     0-2Jessie Filkins         ----    1-0 0-1 ----    1-1 5-8     33-17Maggie Jordan           0-3 3-0 2-0 0-3 5-6 5-6     5-6Carianne McCullough       2-1 2-0 2-1 0-3 6-5 13-6        98-26Destanie Milo           1-2 2-1 3-0 2-1 8-4 18-4        59-15Melissa Trevi?o         ----    ----    ----    ----    ----    0-3     0-3                3-6 8-1 7-2 2-7