FAIRFIELD, CT (December 5, 2010) — The Vassar College Women's Fencing team managed to salvage two tough victories at a grueling multi-meet at Sacred Heart on Sunday, despite being handed their first losses of the season,

The Brewers (14-4) will next travel to Cleveland State University for a multi-meet with Cleveland State, University of Detroit, Wayne State, Case Western and the University of Michigan on Saturday, January 15 at 9:00 a.m.

Vassar's first away meet presented the Brewers with a particularly brutal line-up of opponents: easily the most difficult field they will face on the season. The field included defending national champions Penn State, nationally ranked powerhouses Princeton (4th) and Harvard (9th), UNC and perennial Vassar rivals NYU and Sacred Heart themselves. Despite the formidable challenge, the women managed to defeat the both Tarheels and the Pioneers in two of the match ups that looked heading into the day to be a good indicator of Vassar's prospects within the conference. Here's a round-by-round breakdown of how the Brewers fared:

Round 1: Bye

Round 2: Vassar 4, Princeton 23

The Brewers kicked off their schedule against the #4 nationally ranked Princeton Tigers, and were unable to overcome the overwhelming strength of the opposition. The sabre squad took the worst of it, falling 0-9 to the Tigers, while the foil and epee sides managed just two wins a piece. Senior co-captain Jackie Kory had both wins for the foil squad, and the epee victories came courtesy of senior Sophie Courser and sophomore Caitlin Clevenger.

Round 3: Vassar 3, Harvard 24

The Brewers fell to the #9 nationally ranked Harvard Crimson by an almost identical 3-24 score, with the epee squad providing all three victories. The defending New England epee champions faced a mighty challenge from the Crimson side, which boasted last year's NCAA Championship runner-up Noam Mills, who also finished in the Top 10 at the 2009 European Championships and fenced for Team Israel in the 2008 Olympics. All three of the Vassar starters—Courser, Clevenger and junior Veronica Weser—earned a single victory against the Crimson, an impressive feat that bodes well for their high expectations as the season progresses.

Round 4: Vassar 16, UNC 11

With two nationally ranked teams behind them, Vassar caught a bit of a breather in the fourth round—though the Tar Heels were anything but any easy or assured victory. The sabre squad, held winless thus far on the day, bounced back with a vengeance, leading the way with a 7-2 victory keyed by a 3-0 performance by freshman Hallie Stotler. The foil squad managed to defeat UNC by a score of 5-4, led by identical 2-1 marks by Kory and sophomore Katie LeClair. The epee squad just missed completing three-weapon sweep of UNC, falling by a single match, 4-5 on the strength of Courser's 2-1 effort.

Round 5: Vassar 8, Penn State 21

Vassar's reward for its first victory on the day was a date with defending national champions Penn State and, despite losing, the Brewers made an impressive stand against the Nittany Lions. Both epee and sabre managed 3-6 marks, with both Weser and senior co-captain Julie Carlsen posting 2-1 records. Foil fared somewhat worse at 2-7, with LeClair taking both victories.

Round 6: Vassar 13, NYU 14

The Violets are yearly one of the teams who fight the Brewers tooth and nail for every victory, and Sunday's victory over Vassar by a single bout was no exception. Heading into the closing rounds of the tournaments having come off a gauntlet of elite teams, the Brewers geared up for one has proven to be a great rivalry in the past few years. Sabre and epee both managed squad victories over NYU, with the former finishing 6-3 and the latter 5-4. Junior Brooke Schieffer powered sabre with a 3-0 run, and Courser again led the way for the epee squad with a flawless round of her own. But NYU had stayed close in both weapons, and it was in foil where they would make up the difference, defeating Vassar by a score of 7-2, enough to claim the narrow victory despite the pair of wins split between Kory and LeClair.

Round 7: Vassar 21, Sacred Heart 6

At the end of a particularly long day, the final team left for Vassar to fence was perennial rivals Sacred Heart. Yet, not drained by the challenge of facing up to the nation's best or dispirited by the narrow loss to NYU, the Brewers saved their best performance for last, with the epee and sabre squads cruising to 8-1 victories over the pioneers. In epee, both Courser and Clevenger went undefeated, and Carlsen and Schieffer matched them on the sabre front. Foil edged the Pioneers 5-4 behind another strong 3-0 effort by L