Harvard Fencing Prepares For Ivy League Championships

In last year’s Ivy League Championships, the Harvard fencing teams came up just short of an Ivy League title. Both the men’s and women’s Crimson squads cruised past six of its Ivy foes, only to be thwarted by eventual Ivy champion Princeton.

But this year, Harvard will be looking to avenge those losses. The No. 2 men’s and No. 3 women’s Crimson squads come in as slight favorites against the No. 6 men’s and No. 4 women’s Tiger squads.

In last season’s Ivy League Championships, both squads lost to Princeton in the final round of the tournament. The Harvard men (11-2) were defeated 18-9 and the women (11-3) narrowly fell 14-13, with both squads dropping crucial points during the foil and sabre segments of the competition.

But the Crimson expects this year’s competition against Ivy foe Princeton to be much different.

“It’s always hard to make predictions,” coach Peter Brand said. “But, it’s going to come down to which team wants it the most. The men are hungry this year. They beat themselves up a bit after last year because they felt like they could have done better. My women support each other well. They are a cohesive unit and everyone knows what is at stake. I think that both my squads are ready.”

After an electric start to the season, Harvard has emerged as one of the best teams in the country. Heading into this weekend’s Ancient Eight tournament, both the men’s and women’s squads hold 11-3 records this season, with the men’s squad claiming victories against defending national champion Penn State and ranked teams Duke, Columbia, Ohio State, Penn and St. John’s.

The women’s squad similarly earned wins against defending national champion Penn State and ranked teams St. John’s and Penn.

Part of the Crimson women’s dominance this season can be attributed to the junior-freshman duo: freshman foil specialist Alexandra Kiefer, and junior sabre specialist and women’s captain Caroline Vloka.

Last year, Vloka slashed her way to a 16-2 record at the Ivy League Championships, captured the NCAA sabre title, and claimed spots on both the All-America first team and the All-Ivy League First team.

Similarly, Keifer, just halfway through her freshman year, has put together an impressive season to remain undefeated in all her bouts thus far.

“I think that Alex has become one of the top fencers in the country, and I feel that she’ll do well this coming weekend,” Brand said. “And then we have Caroline Vloka, the reigning NCAA sabre champion, and I’m certainly counting on her to perform very well. Those are the two leaders in my mind for the women’s side and I think that they are really good with spurring the others on and leading by example. If those two perform really well, I think that the others will follow suit.”

On the men’s side, the Crimson will be looking to redeem itself after a stunning collapse last season against the Tigers.

“Last year we were trounced by Princeton, especially in the epee event where we just lost badly,” Brand said. “That killed us.”

However, new additions to the epee, foil and sabre squads have brought about a significant strengthening of the Crimson team. Since last season, the men have added three freshman—sabre specialist Eric Arzoian, foil Lucas Lin and epee Michael Raynis—to shift the balance of power between the Crimson and Tigers.

“On the men’s side this year, we definitely hold an edge against Princeton,” Brand said. “Our sabre squad is much better on paper than Princeton, their epee squad is probably a bit better, so its going to have to come down to the foil squads but I think that we can beat them on the foil. So overall I’m fairly optimistic in the men’s arena. If we perform to our expectations we should have a shot at winning.”

As the hours trickle away, what is clear is that the lost festering rivalry between the Ivy League’s two dominant fencing programs only continues to intensify.

“I think it was last week or so but we heard that the Princeton coach said to a recruit that ‘We’re going to slaughter Harvard,’ which just makes him look like a villain from some kind of B-movie,” sophomore sabre Thomas Kolasa said. “But after that, we’re definitely look forward to meeting Princeton this weekend.”

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.