The second-ranked Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams, led by a strong core of veterans and a group of impressive newcomers, will look to continue their success on Saturday versus as many as six opponents at the Air Force Duals in Colorado Springs, highlighted by a matchup with fourth-ranked Stanford at approximately noon (with the first Irish bouts starting at 9:00 a.m., vs. UC San Diego).

Notre Dame also will face (times approximate): Duke (10:30 a.m.), Cal State Fullerton (2:00) and Air Force (3:30), with a possible matchup vs. Northwestern to end the day (check the ND Sports Hotline at 574-631-3000 for result information).

The top five Irish newcomers have combined for a 49-10 record, including epeeist Michal Sobieraj (Krakow, Poland, 12-0) and foilist Derek Snyder (Chatsworth, Calif., 8-4). The Irish women have relied on the impressive debuts of freshman foilists Andrea Ament (Gate Mills, Ohio, 10-2) and Alicja Kryczalo (Gdansk, Poland, 10-1), while sophomore epeeist Kerry Walton (Londonderry, N.H.) has proven herself a valuable addition, posting a 9-3 record in her first year fencing for the Irish.

Notre Dame will be without one of its top young fencers, as Ament is competing at a World Cup event in Waldkirch, Germany. Junior Liza Boutsikaris (Sparta, N.J.)-a 2000 All-Americans and 2001 NCAA participant-likely will move into the No. 2 women’s foil spot, with senior Michelle Sutton and junior Katie Schuster also on the trip. The Irish again have the option of using sophomore sabre Maggie Jordan (Maplewood, N.J.) at foil, where she fenced in 2001.

Boutsikaris and Jordan delivered as ND’s top foilists at the season-opening Northwestern Invitational, winning all 23 of their combined bouts (Ament and Kryczalo were fencing at a World Cup event in Hungary). Boutsikaris owns a 108-20 career regular-season record (18-5 in 2001) while Jordan’s 61-23 career record included 56-17 in foil bouts (11-0 at the Northwestern Invitational).

The remainder of the Irish squad also will look to build upon the success of last week’s NYU Duals, where the Notre Dame men finished first over top-ranked St. John’s by a one point margin (14-13). The women placed a close second behind the Red Storm (15-12), whose women also ranked first (the next USFCA poll will not be released for several weeks).

Men’s epee will rely on two-time All-American Jan Viviani (Haworth, N.J.), whose 9-2 showing at the NYU Duals pushed his career record to 85-13. The women’s epee squad is built around junior All-Americans Anna Carnick (Mishawaka, Ind., 8-2/102-10 career), and Meagan Call (Eugene, Ore., 7-5/100-28). Junior two-time All-American men’s foilist Ozren Debic (Zagreb, Croatia) moved his career mark to 104-7 with a 10-1 outing last week.

The men’s sabre squad aims to continue its domination via a core of three strong fencers. Senior All-Americans Andrzej Bednarski (Granger, Ind., 6-6/125-27) and Andre Crompton (Irvington, N.J., 9-2/117-18) lead the team into this weekend, while junior Matt Fabricant (Elizabeth, N.J.) displayed the depth of the Irish sabre squad with his 9-3 finish at the NYU Duals (he owns a 72-12 career mark). The women’s sabre team is led by sophomore Destanie Milo (Knox, Ind.), who posted an 8-4 record in a very difficult women’s sabre field at NYU, moving her career mark to 49-15.

The Notre Dame men vaulted to the No. 1 ranking late in the 2001 season, after posting an 18-9 win over then-No. 1 Stanford at the 2001 Duke Open (the ND women lost 17-10). Both Irish teams beat Air Force at the 2001 ND Invitational (20-7 in both) and both beat the hosts at the 2001 Duke Open (23-4 for the men, 21-6 for the women). The ND men lead the all-time series with Stanford (8-1), Air Force (22-6) and Duke (12-0), as do the women (7-1 vs. Stanford, 22-6 vs. AFA, 10-0 vs. Duke). Both Irish teams are 2-0 all-time versus UC San Diego while Saturday will mark the first team competition between the ND and Cal State Fullerton fencing squads.

Scouting the Field …

The Irish will receive the bulk of their competition this weekend from Stanford, which placed fourth at the 2001 NCAAs, led by strong finishes in men’s (third place) and women’s foil (first place). Air Force also will prove a worthy challenge, most notably in men’s and women’s epee (the Falcons men’s squad is ranked 10th in the national poll). The Stanford team is composed of six returning NCAA competitors (five of them All-Americans) while Air Force returns three, Duke two and Cal-State Fullerton has one fencer with NCAA experience (Air Force and Duke are led by one returning All-American).Notre Dame returned 11 of its 12 NCAA competitors, including seven 2001 All-Americans.

Here’s a list of how the top Irish fencers match up against some of this weekend’s elite:

Stanford

* Felix Reichling beat Debic in the 2000 NCAA round-robin and 15-10 in the gold-medal bout. Reichling’s 5-1 win at the 2001 NCAAs then proved key as they both finished the round robin tied for fifth (17-6), with Reichling advancing to the semifinals based on total-point indicators … Debic’s 42-2 regular-season record in 2001 included a 5-3 loss to Reichling at the Duke Open … Reichling’s brother Florian lost to Debic (5-3) while finishing 11th at the 2001 NCAAs.

* Viviani (5-2) and senior Brian Casas (5-4) both beat 8th-place finisher Graham Allen at the 2001 NCAAs.

* Sabre All-American Robert Owens (11th) lost to Bednarski (5-3) and Crompton (5-4) at the 2001 NCAAs, after beating Bednarski at the 2000 NCAAs (5-1).

* Defending NCAA women’s foil champion Iris Zimmerman beat Irish junior (and 2000 All-American) Liza Boutsikaris in a 5-2 bout at the 2001 NCAAs.

Air Force

* All-American Seth Kelsey (6th) lost to Casas at the 2000 (5-4) and 2001 NCAAs (5-0) while splitting a pair of NCAA bouts vs. Viviani in 2000 (5-2 Viviani win) and 2001 (1-0 Kelsey win).

Duke

* All-American Ben Cohen (12th) dropped bouts to Bednarski (5-3) and Crompton (5-2) at the 2001 NCAAs.