CHESTNUT HILL, MA (January 25, 2009) -- A couple of narrow losses against Brown and Brandeis couldn't spoil an otherwise solid performance for the Vassar men's fencing team that compiled a 3-2 record at the Northeast Conference Dual Matches competition held at Boston College.

Outstanding fencers on the day for the Brewers included a 12-3 record in the sabre by sophomore Andrew Fischl, senior captain Alex Snow who went 12-2 in the sabre, freshman Nick Johnson, a 10-5 record in the foil, freshman Brian Rouse, 9-6 in the epee, and junior Zach Pattison-Gordon, an 8-4 mark in the epee.

Round 1 – Bye

Round 2 – Vassar 13 – Brown 14
This year's match against Brown was another barn burner, but the match score ended up in Brown's favor. Six of Vassar's losses in this round were 4-5 losses. One touch the other way in any one of those bouts would have generated at Vassar win.

"The amazing improvement over the past three years that has brought to this point is almost unbelieveable," said head coach Bruce Gillman. "The very first foil bout of the match between Mike D'Urso of Vassar and Adam Pantel of Brown is worth noting. D'Urso lost that bout 4-5, but he had figured out Pantel's timing. It required the vastly more experienced Brown foilist to hold D'Urso off and generate a splendid 5th touch to do so."

Both sabre and epee had 5-4 squad victories and foil a 3-6 squad loss in this round.

Round 3 – Vassar 23 – Tufts 4
The Tufts men are club team that nearly upset the Brewers last year at Wellesley. This year's match wasn't as close. Foil and sabre both went 8-1 and epee 7-2. Rouse, Johnson, D'Urso, Snow, and Fischl all went 3-0 in this round.

Round 4 – Vassar 15 – Boston College 12
"What a difference a year makes," said Gillman. "We lost to BC 6-21 last year, but this time we had senior Alex Snow back from JYA (3-0) and our Epee squad had all cylinders firing with Pattison-Gordon and freshman Raffi Radna both going 3-0 and Rouse 2-1." According to Gillman, epee led the way with their 8-1 victory, with sabre 5-4, and foil winning just enough at 2-7 too seal the team victory.

Round 5 – Vassar 15 – MIT 12
In this match, the Brewers notched their second straight victory over MIT, a feat Gillman says "was unthinkable four years ago." The victory was generated by Vassar's foil and sabre squads. Up until the MIT match, the foilists had been having a tough day, but went 6-3 in this round behind some clutch fencing by junior Jesse Bisignano and Johnson. Fischl was also 3-0 in sabre and Snow and Rothman went 2-1. Three wins from epee were enough to clinch the win.

Round 6 – Vassar 12 – Brandeis 15
Vassar edges closer and closer to a victory over Brandeis every year. Last year Vassar fell 11-16, this year 12-15. Vassar sabre had a resounding squad victory at 7-2 behind a 3-0 round by Fischl and 2-1 performances by Snow and Rothman. Brandeis was strong in foil and epee, but Johnson still managed a 2-1 mark in foil and some of the epee bouts were pretty close. Said Gillman, "Had we faced them earlier in the day, it may have even been closer."

The next match for the men's fencing team will be at Tufts on Saturday, February 7 against Dartmouth, Sacred Heart, Boston University, UNH, and UMass.