Jan. 31, 2004
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The top-ranked Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams defeated the No. 2-ranked Ohio State squads in Saturday’s action at the Notre Dame Collegiate Duals. Both Notre Dame teams added wins over Cleveland State, Air Force, Duke and UC San Diego – with the Irish women improving to 15-0 while the men now are 13-1. Action concludes on Sunday (8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.), with the highlight matchup set for 11:00 a.m. between the Notre Dame women and 5th-ranked Northwestern.
Junior epeeist Natalie Bustmante – who was studying abroad in Spainduring the fall semester – proved to be an unlikely hero in the 14-13 win over the Buckeyes. Bustamante shocked three-time All-American Alexandra Shklar (the third-place finisher at the ’03 NCAAs) in a back-and-forth 5-4 bout, yielding a 7-3 overall lead for the Irish.
The Notre Dame men and women now have combined to win three 14-13 decisions on the final bout and a freshman has delivered the decisive win in each of those close finishes. Sabre Valerie Providenza (Beaverton, Ore.), with her family in attendance, took her turn as the latest freshman hero by defeating fellow freshman and nationally-ranked Syvenna Siebert in the clinching 5-3 win.
The Irish men bested OSU by a more comfortable margin (15-12), led by 3-0 showing from junior epeeist Michael Sobieraj, junior foilist Derek Snyder and freshman sabre Patrick Ghattas. The Notre Dame men also posted a 21-6 win over 8th-ranked Air Force earlier in the day.
The Notre Dame women – who own wins earlier this season vs. No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Columbia-Barnard, No. 5 Northwestern, 7th-ranked St. John’s and No. 10 Temple – have not lost a dual match since the 2003 ND Duals, a 29-match winning streak (5th-longest in the program’s history) that dates back to a 16-11 loss to Penn State. The Irish face another tough test in Sunday’s action when they tangle with Midwest rival Northwestern (11:00 a.m.), with Sunday’s five matches and the Feb. 21 West vs. Central Duals (at Purdue) now all that remains before the first unbeaten season for the Irish women since the 1995 team went 32-0.
Other noteworthy wins for the Irish women vs. OSU included senior foilist Maggie Jordan (who converted back to foil after fencing sabre in ’02 and ’03) vs. Alexandra DiCerbo (5-4) and Michelle Lange (5-0), junior foilist Andrea Ament vs. Metta Thompson (5-1), and a complete sweep of Marguerite Plekhanov by senior sabre Destanie Milo (5-3), Providenza (5-2) and fellow freshman Angela Vincent (5-4).
The Notre Dame women’s foilists (7-2) helped counteract an off-day in epee (2-7), with a 5-4 sabre score providing the final one-bout margin.
Freshman epeeist Amy Orlando had another strong day (11-2), after going 13-0 at last week’s NYU Duals (she started her ND career by going just 4-9). ND’s top three women’s foilists – Ament (10-0), junior Alicja Kryczalo (10-1) and Jordan (9-3) – combined for a dominating 29-4 day while the top three sabers were 29-7 (Milo 10-3, Providenza 8-2 and Vincent 11-2).
Sobieraj continued his dominance of college fencing with a 12-0 day while the top men’s foilists combined for a 31-6 record (junior Derek Snyder 12-0, senior Forest Walton 10-2, freshman Frank Bontempo 9-4. The strong showings by ND freshmen included the sabre duo of Patrick Ghattas (9-1) and Matt Stearns (11-1).
Here are more details on the wins over OSU, plus other noteworthy wins and notes:
ND-OSU WOMEN’S NOTES – Metta Thompson’s sister Hannah did not fence (Hannah placed 3rd at the ’02 NCAAs, 8th in ’03, with Metta 5th both years) … ND won 4 one-touch bouts vs. the Buckeyes (OSU won 5) … Shklar posted an early 5-3 win over ND senior Kerry Walton … the Irish won six straight bouts for a 9-3 cushion, with the last three wins coming from Bustamante vs. Shklar, Jordan vs. Lange and Ament vs. DeCerbo (5-0) … OSU then jumped back into things when Talia Viggers beat Walton (5-3), Thompson bested Kryczalo (5-3) and one of the nation’s top junior-level fencers Kaela Brendler beat Orlando in sudden death (4-3) … things stayed close when ’02 NCAA runner-up Louise Bond-Williams (4th in ’03) edged Providenza (5-4) and then Shklar beat Orlando (5-4), for a 10-9 ND lead … Milo then bested Plekhanov (an ’03 NCAA participant) but OSU forged an 11-11 tie on Brendler’s win over Walton (5-1) and Bond-Williams’ 5-2 bout vs. Vincent … the teams then traded four bouts – Providenza and Vincent’s wins over Plekhanov (5-2), Siebert over Milo (5-4) and Bond-Williams over Milo (5-3) – to set up the final Providenza-Siebert bout … OSU returned 5 of its 6 competitors from the ’03 NCAAs (all but All-America epeeist Sherice Gearhart) … Milo has not defeated Bond-Williams in several previous regular-season, regional and NCAA bouts but she did knock off Plekhanov at the ’03 Midwest Regional and the ’03 NCAAs … Walton had defeated Shklar in 5-of-6 bouts during ’02 and ’03 while Ament had been 4-2 vs. Metta Thompson (regular-season, Regional and NCAAs).
ND-OSU MEN’S NOTES – The Irish owned a key 5-1 edge in one-tough bouts … Stearns posted an early win over former All-American Colin Parker (5-3) … Ghattas later added a 5-1 win over Parker, giving ND the 5-4 total edge in sabre (7-5 in the overall ND-OSU men’s team battle) … Snyder pulled off a classic rally after falling behind Alexander Law, 0-4 (5-4), pushing ND to a 9-6 lead … OSU’s Spencer Jones (a former NCAA participant) then picked a key overtime win over freshman Aaron Adjemian (4-3) … Bontempo answered a few bouts later with a shutout of NCAA veteran Nathan Weir (10-8 team lead) … the match still was up in the air (13-12) with two outs remaining, with the clincher coming when Sobieraj edged Jones (5-4) … the final spirited bout saw Snyder jump ahead on Israeli native and one of the world’s top-ranked juniors Boaz Ellis (Snyder was up 4-1, held on to win 5-4) … OSU’s lineup was a shadow of the six-fencer squad that competed at the ’03 NCAAs, with Jones the only fencer among those six who fenced three bouts vs. ND on Saturday ((NCAA 3rd-place sabre finisher Jason Rogers is training for the Olympics, NCAA sabre champ Adam Crompton did not fence, Weir only fenced one bout vs. ND, foilist Matt Carbone and epeeist Brian Gross did not fence vs. ND) … Sobieraj now is 5-1 vs. Jones in regular-season, Regional or NCAA bouts.
OTHER BOUTS OF NOTE – Sobieraj posted a 3-1 win over Air Force’s Tim French (the 8th-place finisher at the ’03 NCAAs), with French besting Adjemian (3-2) and senior North Carey (5-1) … Milo and Vincent posted 5-2 win over AFA’s Marisa Romero (a 2003 NCAA participant) … the Irish swept UCSD’s two NCAA veterans: sabre Jeremy Runyon (senior Brian Dosal 5-3, Stearns 5-1, sophomore Alex Schumacher 5-2) and epeeist Lauren Muir (Walton 5-3, junior Rebecca Chimahusky 5-0 and Orlando 5-4) … in addition to the fencers mentioned above and the ND-Northwestern women’s matchup, other opponent fencers to watch include Duke epeeist Nathan Bragg, Cal State Fullerton women’s foilist Senta Breden, Wayne State epee All-American Anna Vinnikov … the Northwestern women’s NCAA returners include All-America foilist Julia Foldi, plus foilist Christina Wang, epeeist Sharon Sullivan and sabre Emily Pasternak.
RECORD BOOK & SEASON NOTES – Forest Walton remains on pace for the best career of his ND career (30-5) and moved up from 27th to 21st on the ND list for career men’s fencing wins (145-33) … Walton has jumped up to 6th in the ND record book for men’s foil wins, just one win behind Pat Gerard (’78) and Yehuda Kovacs (’89) and within range of finishing 2nd on that list (Stephane Auriol won 154 from ’96-’99 and Walton’s former teammate Ozren Debic 157 from ’00-’03, with Jeremy Siek’s 191 wins from ’94-’97 standing as the record) … Sobieraj became the 59th ND men’s fencer to post 100 wins and ranks 54th (104-8, including 34-2 in the ’03-’04 season) … Snyder has matched Walton’s 30-5 record (96-18 career) … Ghattas (30-3) and Stearns (27-8) have combined for a 57-11 record … Kerry Walton still ranks 9th in ND career women’s epee wins (124-18; 31-8 current record) … Ament (31-1; 100-11) and Kryczalo (33-5; 112-10) have combined for a 64-6 season record and remain on pace for another dominating “A Team” performance … Milo (153-34) moved up from 19th to 17th on the ND women’s fencing wins (27-10 in ’03-’04 season) … Providenza (28-5) and Vincent (30-8) have combined for a 58-13 record .. the earlier 14-13 matches that came down to the last bout saw Adjemian win vs. Penn State (at PSU Duals) and Ghattas vs. Columbia (at NYU Duals).