Swordsmen Sail at New MAC

The crowd and the setting were perfect Saturday when the Harvard fencing teams took on Princeton.

The results, however, were just half-perfect.

Amid an enthusiastic crowd which included President Derek C. Bok and a host of alumni stars from past fencing teams to celebrate the opening of the Malkin Athletic Center, the fencers came away with a split as the men ended a 10-year drought against the Tigers by beating them, 16-11, while the women were edged by four touches in an 8-8 contest.

In the process of ending their losing streak, the men (10-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy) also captured the two-year-old Sieja Cup, the award given to the winner of the Harvard-Princeton game.

"Princeton has always been a big meet; the alumni were there and everyone was psyched up," Co-Captain Jeff Levy said. "It was great to open our new fencing room with a win."

"It was really important [to win] because it was the opening of the room," epee fencer Jim O'Neil added, "and the alumni there wanting us to win put extra pressure on us and we were psyched up."

Although the swordsmen were up for the match, they were unable to take a comfortable lead. Harvard was only ahead 11-10 when it suddenly pulled away from the Tigers by winning five of the last six bouts. Co-Captain Luca Cicchetti won the clinching 14th bout to secure the win.

Leading the Crimson attack were O'Neil (3-0) in epee and Kevin McCarthy (3-0) in sabre.

While the men were able to outlast the Tigers, the women did not fare as well as they fell to 5-5 overall and 1-3 in the Ivy League.

After the match ended in an 8-8 tie, a tie-breaker of total number of touches was used. And the swordswomen, having had four less touches, were given the loss.

"There were a lot of people at the match. We were very excited," Claudia Polsky said, "but we were also very nervous. We could have won; we expected them to be stronger."

The hosts were led by Penelope Papailias who won all four of her bouts.

The fencers will next host City College of New York and Tufts this Friday at 7 p.m.