POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 17, 2009) -- In preparation for the second half of the fencing season, Vassar's men's team hosted Yale and Detroit Mercy at Walker Field House on Saturday and came away with a split. The Brewers fell to Yale 21-6 and defeated Detroit Mercy 18-9.

Despite more than a month layoff, the Brewers had several top performances. Senior Alex Snow (Silver Spring, MD/George C. Marshall) went a perfect 5-0 in the sabre and freshman Brian Rouse (Middletown, CT/Middletown) went 4-0 in the epee.


Round 1 – Yale 21 - Vassar 6

The Bulldogs posted a commanding win in this bout. The bright spot for Vassar was a 5-4 squad win in sabre lead by team captain Snow (3-0) and junior John Rothman (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) who went 2-1. The epee team went 1-8, but several of the bouts were extremely close. Rouse came in as a substitute in the third round and registered the only win. Yale's foil squad was very strong, defeating Vassar 9-0.

Round 2 – Bye

Round 3 – Vassar 18 – Detroit Mercy 9
The University of Detroit Mercy stopped at Vassar for its first trip outside the midwest in several years. Detroit Mercy fielded a strong foil squad that managed to go undefeated against the Brewers, but took honors in epee and sabre with 9-0 victories in each.

The Brewers will next travel to Brown for the Northeast Conference Multimeet #2 at Brown on January 24.