Senior Day Program

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (November 21, 2010) – The Vassar College Women's Fencing team remained undefeated on the season with a 5-0 sweep of the field at the 1st Annual Matt Lampell Invitational at Walker Field House on Sunday. The Brewers started out the season strong at home on the 14th, and continued to dominate their competition, winning at least 22 of their 27 bouts in every match.

The Brewers will travel to Sacred Heart on Sunday, December 5 for what promises to be one of the most challenging meets on the schedule, facing Harvard, Princeton, Penn State, NYU and Sacred Heart.

Before getting underway with their final home meet of the season, the Brewers honored their four graduating seniors with a brief awards ceremony. Co-captains Julie Carlsen (sabre) and Jackie Kory (foil) joined Sophie Courser (epee) and Domino Gehred-O'Connell (sabre) in receiving commemorative plaques thanking them for four years of dedicated service and big wins. And the three seniors (minus the absent Gehred-O'Connell) completed their final home match in style, all remaining undefeated for a cumulative 32-0 record on the day. Junior Brooke Schieffer (sabre), as well as sophomore foilists Katie LeClair and Katharine Sweeney were also perfect, adding another 28 collective wins to the tally. LeClair has yet to lose a single bout through 11 matches this season. Here's a look at how the Brewer's fared round by round:

ROUND 1: Vassar 25, Marist 2

Vassar wasted no time in serving notice to its competition on the day that they meant business, rolling right over the Red Foxes in emphatic fashion. The epee and foil squads posted identical 8-1 victories, with 3-0 performances by Courser and junior Veronica Weser in epee and by LeClair and Kory in foil. Both squads benefited as well from victories off the bench, with sophomore Victoria Weiss scoring the final epee victory and Sweeney adding 2 to the foil effort. The sabre squad faced only a single fencer, receiving an automatic 6 victories through forfeiture, and would end up with a 9-0 mark behind victories by Carlsen, sophomore Tracy Bratt and freshman Emma Telischi.

ROUND 2: Vassar 22, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 5

Vassar continued to cruise against the RPI Engineers, who came into the round with the distinct disadvantage of having to spot the Brewers 9 automatic wins due to their lack of an epee squad. The forfeit in epee nearly proved irrelevant, as the foil and sabre squads managed 13 wins between them—1 shy of the clinching 14th victory. Foil dominated the Engineers 8-1, with Kory and Sweeney both coming out of the fray 3-0 and junior Alia Heintz contributing the final 2 victories. Sabre faced a surprising challenge, however, just edging RPI 5-4, powered by Telischi's 2 wins off the bench.

ROUND 3: Vassar 24, City College of New York 3

The CCNY Beavers were the first of only two varsity teams the Brewers would face on the afternoon (Queens being the other), but even so they posed little challenge for the red-hot Brewers. Sabre set the standard in this round, scoring a 9-0 victory behind starters Carlsen, Schieffer and freshman Hallie Stotler. Epee followed right on their heels with an 8-1 tally, lead by 3-0 efforts by Weser and sophomore Caitlin Clevenger. Foiled added a 7-2 finish to the team effort, with Kory and LeClair both adding yet another 3-0 run to their phenomenal days. The more the day went on, the clearer it became that it was going to take something special to slow the Brewers down, because with three up and three down, Vassar was pouring it on full bore.

ROUND 4: Vassar 23, Bard 4

The Raptors were another team starting out the wrong way, down in a 9-0 hole right off the bat due to their lack of a sabre side. Even with the 9-0 cushion, the foil and epee teams managed to come up with the requisite 14 wins regardless. Foil contributed a second 9-0 mark the old-fashioned way, with LeClair and Sweeney running the table and Kory going 2-0 before Heintz subbed in during the final round to account for the remaining win. The Raptors wouldn't go down quietly in epee, however, putting up a fierce fight, yet ultimately failing to stop the Brewers from leaving the strip with a 5-4 win. Courser and Clevenger would both go 2-0 before Weiss stepped into the unenviable task of subbing in for all three teammates in the final round, fencing three consecutive bouts and earning the difference-maker on her final attempt. Vassar took a lopsided record into the final round, hungry to stay undefeated on the season with one varsity team standing in the way.

ROUND 5: Vassar, 22, Queens College, City University of New York 5

The Knights—only the second varsity team Vassar would face on the day—were the only thing standing between the Brewers and another sweep of the field at home, and Vassar would not be denied. Yet again, Vassar was the beneficiary of forfeiture victories as the Knights' two women foil squad had to spot the Brewers three victories from the get-go. Even so, the foil side would run roughshod over Queens, finishing at 8-1 behind further 3-0 efforts from Kory and LeClair. Sabre posted a matching 8-1 record, though without the benefit of any forfeiture victories, riding 3-0 closes to the day by both Carlsen and Schieffer. The epee squad gutted out a more tightly contested 6-3 victory to seal it, with Courser, Weser and Clevenger all pitching in 2 wins. It was a thrilling day for Vassar, and between perfect performances by six individual fencers and all around contributions of the bench, the Brewers continued to show the dominance with which they started off their season and are riding high into what promises to be an intense and difficult match-up on the other side of Thanksgiving.