CHESTNUT HILL, MA (January 28, 2012) – In their first taste of North East Conference fencing at Boston College, the Vassar College men's fencing team faced strong competition and finished 1-4 on the day.

The epee squad had the best outing, winning four of five matches and narrowly lost to MIT4-5. Foil secured two squad wins and sabre was blanked. All the squads were missing key players due to leaves and illness.

Top performers on the day were Nicholas Johnson (12-2) and Brian Rouse (11-4) in epee and Alex Bue (10-5) in foil.

Round 1 – Bye

Round 2 – Brown 18 Vassar 9
Brown is a strong team and along with Sacred Heart will contend for the league championship. Foil and sabre are Brown's strongest squads and the Vassar men only took two bouts each from them. Matt Steinschneider is improving in sabre and scored a victory against a nationally ranked opponent in this round. Vassar was able to secure a close 5-4 victory in epee behind Johnson (3-0) and Rouse (2-1).

Round 3 – Vassar 16 Tufts 11
Vassar sabre had a challenging round, but Steinschneider, Kenny Lee, and Gabriel Perez each managed one victory. Foil went 5-4 behind Bue (3-0) and Giovanni Zaccheo (2-1). Epee had the best round at 8-1 with everyone on the squad scoring at least one win. In addition to Rouse and Johnson, Roberto Maiocco had two and Nicholas Mongillo and Tushar Agarwal both had one each.

Round 4 – Boston College 15 Vassar 12
BC has a strong sabre squad including two nationally ranked fencers. Vassar's two bout victories is a sign of improvement in this weapon.  Foil and epee needed to general six wins each for Vassar to win this match and came up just short at five each. It was close and exciting right up to the end.  Bue, Zaccheo, and Alex Vastola all had wins in foil. Johnson and Rouse combined for the five wins in epee.

Round 5 – MIT 18  Vassar 9
This was a tough round for the Brewers.  MIT has strong foil and sabre squads and are strong in epee. Alex Bue was the only one to make any headway in foil with two wins. The sabre squad only managed one win each. Epee had their only squad loss of the day going 4-5.

Round 6 – Brandeis 17  Vassar 10
Brandeis has a solid sabre squad this year. Matt Steinschneider managed an impressive 2-1 in this round, but the rest of the squad was overmatched. Bue was 2-1 in foil and Zaccheo 1-2. There were at least three 4-5 foil losses in that round that might have made thing a lot closer had they been wins. Vassar epee had the only squad win at 5-4.

The Brewers, now 13-11 on the season, will travel to Yale for a match on Saturday, February 4.