MEDFORD, MA (February 9, 2009) – En route to a second consecutive third place finish in the North East Conference, the Vassar men's fencing team put together its finest single day of competition this season, going a perfect 5-0 and along the way defeating a strong Sacred Heart University team for the second time this season. Only three bout losses – one against Brown and two versus Brandeis in late January – kept the Brewers from claiming the conference championship this season.

Now 13-7 on the season, the Brewers will next compete on Wednesday, February 11 at New York University in a tri-match with Columbia.

Outstanding fencers on the day for the Brewrs were sophomore Andrew Fischl (Huntington, NY/Harborfields), 11-1 in the sabre, senior captain Alex Snow (Silver Springs, George C. Marhsall), 14-1 in the sabre, junior John Rothman (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo), 10-5 in the sabre, freshman Nick Johnson (Byfield, MA/St. John's Prepatory), 11-3 in the foil, junior Jesse Bisignano, 10-2 in the foil, freshman Brian Rouse (Middletown, CT/Middletown), 12-3 in the epee and freshman Raffi Radna (Bronx, NY/Riverdale), 13-2 in the epee.

Round 1 – Bye

Round 2 – Vassar 16 – University of Massachusetts 11
Massachusetts fields a club team, but they are active and defeated the Brewers two years ago. This year, UMass jumped out to a 5-4 sabre squad win. Vassar epee answered with a close 5-4 squad win, but the victory was really secured for Vassar in this round by the great foil fencing of Johnson (3-0), Bisignano (2-1) and senior Robert Woodward (Sydney, Australia/Sydney Grammar School), who went 2-1.

Round 3 – Bye

Round 4 – Vassar 22 – University of New Hampshire 5
Vassar was in control throughout this match with 8-1 squad victories in epee and sabre and a 6-3 victory in foil. Sophomore epee fencer Chris Wilson (Saugus, MA/St. Johns Prep) had a great round at 2-1.

Round 5 – Vassar 20 – Dartmouth 7
Vassar sabre cruised in this round with Fischl, Snow, and Rothman all going 3-0 for squad 9-0 sweep. Epee was much closer at 5-4 for Vassar and foil went 6-3 with Johnson, Bisignano, and Woodward all going 2-1, none quite able to solve the puzzle of Dartmouth star foilist Xu.

Round 6 – Vassar 18 – Sacred Heart University 9
Sacred Heart is always a tough opponent for the Brewers. Vassar won in a squeaker 14-13 at the last meeting in Walker Field House on December 6, 2008. This time it wasn't nearly as close. All three Vassar squads posted victories this time. Sabre was 7-2, foil 6-3, and epee 5-4. The victories we particularly significant. The first two were is sabre where both Fischl and Snow were able to secure 5-3 victories against an always tough SHU fencer Marty Williams in route to both going 3-0 in the round. In foil, there was yet another epic bout between Bisignano and SHU's Daniel Convery-Zupan. Both are from the Boston area and have been fencing great bouts against each other for a number of years. Even after both took a few months off this one was still an exciting barnburner, with Bisignano coming out on top 5-3.

Round 7 – Vassar 22 – Boston University 5
Vassar was in control throughout this match with 8-1 victories in foil and sabre and 6-3 in epee. Sophomore Dennis D'Urso (Peabody, MA/St. Johns Prep), usually a sabre fencer, was asked to fence foil in this round to replace an injured foilist. He did a great impression of his foilist brother and teammate Mike and won two foil bouts, going 2-1 in this round and 2-3 as a foilist on the day.