Harvard Men Fence-In Brandeis, 19-8

Through strong offensive performances, the Harvard men's and women's fencing teams rewrote Jimmy Cliff last night, proving "the harder we come, the harder they fall" as each squad handily defeated its Brandeis counterpart at the IAB.

En route to topping the Judges, 19-8, the men won in all three fencing categories.

Anticipating easy victories in both foil and epee competition, senior Steve Kaufer, captain and top epee-man, and Michael Merner, Harvard's number-one foilman, sat out.

With Merner voluntarily sidelined, freshman, Brian Shaffield and Ray Carthy along with sophomore Jeffrey Levy tallied six of the Crimson's seven foil round points, while Dom Randolph and Thor Willbanks led the way in epee, each posting 3-0 records. Harvard gave up only one bout in epee and two in foil.

Although no one was absent from the saber bouts, Brandeis managed to win five of nine duels. Kaufer, noting that the Harvard losses were somewhat surprising, said both sophomore Sid Rubenstein and freshman Josh Weintraub played below their potential: "It was clear that this was not one of their better meets." Rubenstein lost two of three bouts while Weintraub failed to score a single victory with the saber.

Individualist

On the women's side, senior Vivi Fuchs led the Crimson to its 9-7 victory. After four bouts and four wins with the foil. Fuchs upped her individual season record to 18-4.

Senior Robin Dorfman, also undefeated for the night, added three more points for Harvard.

Alicia Downey and Claudia Polsky, each scoring single wins, rounded out the Crimson victory.

Harvard's women fencers lost to a stronger Brandeis team last year. Assistant Coach Mary Annavedder attributed the turnaround to Brandeis's loss of two graduating seniors and to the Harvard squad's experience--three of the four Crimson varsity starters are seniors.

The men's team takes a 6-1 record into next Sunday's battle against perennial Ivy champ Columbia, while the women will enter the meet at 4-2.