Notre Dame's Amy Orlando (right) and Wayne State's Anna Garina (left) will resume their women's epee rivalry during this weekend's action at the Notre Dame Duals.

Top-Ranked Irish Women Defeat Seventh-Ranked Northwestern (18-9) In Unbeaten Day At Notre Dame Duals

Jan. 28, 2006

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Amy Orlando’s recent success over two-time NCAA epee champion Anna Garina of Wayne State continued on Saturday in a 5-4 overtime bout, highlighting another strong showing by the top-ranked Notre Dame women’s fencing team in action at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse. The Irish went 7-0 as the host team at the Notre Dame Duals and improved to 17-1 for the season after posting comfortable wins over their top two opponents – winning 18-9 over 7th-ranked Northwestern and Wayne State – while posting even larger margins over Detroit (24-3) and Lawrence (26-1), plus three 27-0 victories (vs. Oberlin, Cleveland State and Chicago).

Twelve different Irish fencers totaled double-digit victories, with that group including five freshmen: Ashley Serrette in sabre (16-3), foilists Emilie Prot (14-1) and Adrienne Nott (10-2), and 11-2 records from epeeists Kim Montoya and Madeleine Stephan. The dominant 58-5 day from the sabre team included a 13-1 record by junior Angela Vincent, a 11-0 mark for her classmate Valerie Providenza and junior Erin Housing’s 13-1 day.

Sophomore foilists Melanie Bautista battled to a 13-4 record and senior epeeist Marielle Connor (13-0) matched that win total, with fifth-year senior epeeist Becca Chimahusky (10-1) and Orlando (10-3) also reaching double-digit wins. Sophomore sabre sensation Mariel Zagunis fenced in limited duty but won all five of her bouts, improving to 36-2 for the season and 65-2 in regular-season bouts during her Irish career.

The weekend action concludes on Sunday with primarily men’s bouts, in addition to Duke fencing several women’s matches (the Blue Devils were competing on Saturday at Penn State). Top bouts to watch on Sunday include: the Duke women vs. Northwestern at 9:00 a.m.; full matches for Duke (men and women) vs. Notre Dame (10:00), Wayne State (11:00) and Ohio State (noon; OSU men are #1, women #4); the ND men vs. Wayne State (led by ’05 NCAA epee runner-up Marek Petraszek) at 3:00; and the OSU men vs. Wayne State at 4:00.

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Freshman sabreist Ashley Serrette led the Notre Dame fencers with 16 wins in Saturday’s action.

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Orlando faced a 3-0 deficit versus Garina but battled back in a rematch of the 2005 NCAA title match, giving the Notre Dame junior yet another win over the six-foot Ukranian. Five-touch bouts typically have produced wins for Orlando over Garina – including in both the 2004 (3-2) and ’05 (5-2) NCAA round-robin and at the ’05 ND Duals – but the Wayne State senior usually has prevailed in the 15-touch format (including 14-11 in the ’04 Midwest Fencing Conference championship bout and the 15-6 score in the ’05 NCAA final).

Notre Dame and Northwestern were tied after six bouts – with notable wins by Zagunis over Mai Vu (5-1), All-American Jessica Florendo over Bautista (5-3) and Providenza over Emily Pasternak (5-2) – before the Irish rattled off eight straight wins to all but secure the overall team victory. Top wins in the streak included Montoya vs. Sharon Sullivan (5-1), Zagunis vs. Pasternak (5-1), Stephan over Courtney DuBois (5-1), Prot vs. top freshman Samantha Nemecek (5-3), Vincent over Pasternak (5-3) and Providenza vs. Vu (5-2). Prot trailed in her key bout 3-0 before scoring five straight points vs. the highly-regarded Nemecek.

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Emilie Prot’s comeback from a 3-0 deficit vs. one of college fencing’s top young foilists, Sam Nemecek, helped fuel Notre Dame’s eight straight wins over Northwestern.

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The Irish went on to win the majority of the epee (7-2) and sabre (5-4) bouts vs. Northwestern but the Wildcats edged the home team in foil (5-4). Other wins of note in the second half of the ND-NU match included: Nott over Florendo (5-2), Orlando vs. DuBois (5-4), Stephan over Sullivan (4-3, in OT) and Montoya vs. DuBois (4-2)

The excruciating loss to Northwestern in foil saw the Wildcats win three of the final four bouts, all in overtime (Natalie Wang, 3-2 vs. Prot; Nemecek, 5-4 over Nott; and Wang again, 3-2 vs. Bautista).

The only other loss for Notre Dame all day came in epee vs. Wayne State (6-3), as Garina edged Montoya (3-2, in OT) and topped Stephan (5-2) while Alyse Schneider defeated Orlando (5-2) and Justyna Konoczalska swept Chimahusky (5-2), Stephan (5-2) and Orlando (5-3).

A record-book update will be included with Sunday’s wrapup.

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Mariel Zagunis saw limited time on Saturday but the sabre standout went 5-0 – including a sweep of Northwestern – while pushing her career record to 65-2 in regular-season bouts with the Irish.

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#1 Notre Dame Women vs. #7 Northwestern (ND 18, NW 9)
WS – Mariel Zagunis def. Mai Vu, 5-1 … 1-0
WF – Jessica Florendo def. Melanie Bautista. 5-3 … 1-1
WS – Sophie Eustis def. Ashley Serrette, 5-4 … 1-2
WE – Amy Orlando def. Megan Ross, 5-4 … 2-2
WS – Valerie Providenza def. Emily Pasternak, 5-2 … 3-2
WS – Vu def. Angela Vincent, 5-1, 3-3
WF – Adrienne Nott def. Natalie Wang, 5-3 … 4-3
WE – Kimberlee Montoya def. Sharon Sullivan, 5-1 … 5-3
WS – Zagunis def. Pasternak, 5-1 … 6-3

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Kim Montoya’s win over NCAA Tournament veteran Sharon Sullivan helped the Irish defeat the Wildcats.

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WS – Providenza def. Eustis, 5-0 … 7-3
WE – Madeleine Stephan def. Courtney DuBois, 5-1 … 8-3
WF – Emilie Prot def. Sam Nemecek, 5-3 … 9-3
WS – Vincent def. Pasternak, 5-3 … 10-3
WS – Providenza def. Vu, 5-2 … 11-3
WE – Ross def. Montoya, 5-3 … 11-4
WF – Nott def. Florendo, 5-2 … 12-4
WS – Zagunis def. Eustis, 5-1 … 13-4 (ND wins sabre, 5-2)
WE – Orlando def. DuBois, 5-4 … 14-4 (ND clinches)

WF – Nemecek def. Bautista, 5-1 … 14-5
WE – Stephan def. Sullivan, 4-3, OT … 15-5
WF – N. Wang def. Prot, 3-2, OT … 15-6
WE – Montoya def. DuBois, 4-2 … 16-6
WE – Stephan def. Ross, 5-2 … 17-6
WF – Nemecek def. Nott, 5-4, OT … 17-7
WE – Sullivan def. Orlando, 3-2, OT … 17-8 (ND wins epee, 7-2)
WF – Prot def. Florendo, 5-2 … 18-8
WF – N. Wang def. Bautista, 3-2, OT … 18-9 (Northwestern wins foil, 5-4)

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Adrienne Nott helped cap the win over the Wildcats with a 5-2 victory over All-American Jessica Florendo.

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ROUND 1
Notre Dame def. Oberlin, 27-0
Ohio State def. Lawrence, 23-4
Wayne State def. Cleveland State, 24-3
Northwestern def. Chicago, 23-4

ROUND 2
Notre Dame def. Detroit Mercy, 24-3
Ohio State def. Oberlin, 26-1
Cleveland State def. Lawrence, 15-12
Wayne State def. Chicago, 22-5

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Junior sabreist Valerie Providenza.

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ROUND 3
Ohio State def. Detroit Mercy, 23-4
Northwestern def. Wayne State, 19-8 vCleveland State def. Oberlin, 18-9
Chicago def. Lawrence, 16-11

ROUND 4
Northwestern def. Lawrence, 27-0
Cleveland State def. Detroit Mercy, 20-7
Chicago def. Oberlin, 18-9

ROUND 5
Notre Dame def. Cleveland State, 27-0
Northwestern def. Oberlin, 27-0
Wayne State def. Lawrence, 23-4
Chicago def. Detroit Mercy, 18-9

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Freshman epeeist Madeleine Stephan.

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ROUND 6
Notre Dame def. Chicago, 27-0
Ohio State def. Cleveland State, 23-4
Northwestern def. Detroit Mercy, 25-2 vWayne State def. Oberlin, 25-2

ROUND 7
Notre Dame def. Northwestern, 18-9
Ohio State def. Chicago, 27-0
Wayne State def. Detroit Mercy, 20-7
Lawrence def. Oberlin, 17-3

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Senior foilist Colleen Walsh.

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ROUND 8
Notre Dame def. Wayne State, 18-9
Ohio State def. Northwestern, 14-13
Chicago def. Cleveland State, 14-13
Detroit Mercy def. Lawrence, 12-9

ROUND 9
Notre Dame def. Lawrence, 26-1
Ohio State def. Wayne State, 17-10
Northwestern def. Cleveland State, 25-2
Oberlin def. Detroit Mercy, 13-9

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Junior epeeist Amy Orlando.

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