POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 18, 2015) – The Vassar College women's fencing team honored its five seniors Sunday afternoon with three wins at the VC Fencing Challenge, hosted by the Brewers in Walker Field House.

VC (14-10) started the day with wins over University of Detroit-Mercy (20-7), Cleveland State (18-9) and New Jersey Institute of Technology (17-10), but fell to Tufts University (15-12) and Yale University (21-6) in the final two matches of the afternoon.

The day was also special for the Brewers, who showed tribute to seniors Megan Lewis (Charleston, SC/Governor's School), Kathleen Konno (Newburgh, NY/Our Lady of Lourdes), Anveshi Guha (Jonesboro, AR/Arkansas School of Mathematics), Janelle Washington (Brooklyn, NY/High School Health Prof. Human) and Anastasia Stevens (Peterborough, NH/Contoocook Valley Regional) prior to the day's fencing.

In the morning's opening contests with Detroit, Vassar College started the day with a very strong win, highlighted by the nine victories by the foil group. The trio of Kirsten Denman (Yellow Springs, OH/Yellow Springs), Elsa Stoff (Fair Haven, NJ/Rumson-Fair Haven) and Catrina Tellez (Felton, CA/San Lorenzo Valley) all chalked up three wins in foil, while junior Amreen Bhasin (Cresskill, NJ/Riverdale) added three wins.

The next match against Cleveland State as the sabre and epee groups shine, highlighted by the three wins from freshman Annie Innes-Gold (Northampton, MA/Northampton) and two triumphs by Konno and Stevens.

In foil, the Brewers only earned four wins but two each from Stoff and Denman against the CSU group that sent three foilists to the NCAA Midwest Regional last year. Later in the day, Vassar lost both the epee and foil groups 5-4 to NJIT, but the sabre group went a perfect 9-0 to lead VC to the 17-10 win over the Highlanders.

Against NJIT, Innes-Gold was again undefeated with three wins, while Stevens and Marisa Tomaino (Denville, NJ/Newark Academy) also picked up two victories. Vassar College would fall for the first time on Sunday in its next match with Tufts, but there were some bright spots for the Brewers. VC's foil group got three wins apiece from Stoff and Denman, while Innes-Gold earned two wins including one over her older sister Sarah, who fences for the Jumbos.

In the battle between Innes-Gold siblings, the younger Annie took a 4-2 lead only to see her older sister Sarah respond with two consecutive touches to knot the bout at four. In the end though, the younger Annie earned the final touch and bragging rights, even if it is just for a week as the Brewers and Jumbos face off again next weekend.

The final contest of the day for the Brewers came against the very strong and deep Bulldogs of Yale University, who won all three weapon groups for the victory. Sophomore Olivia Weiss (Pittsburgh, PA/Pennsylvania Cyber Charter) was 2-0 against Yale, while Denman also added two wins.

On the day, Weiss was amazing, registering an 11-1 mark on the day, while Denman posted a team-high 12 wins for Vassar in 15 total bouts. Stoff went 11-4 for VC and the foil team for Vassar, which finished with 27 total wins, the most of any weapon group. Innes-Gold led the sabre team with 10 triumphs, followed by the eight wins by Stevens.

Vassar College will travel to Brown University next weekend for Northeast Fencing Conference action Saturday at 10 p.m., battling Boston College, Brandeis University, Tufts, Dartmouth College, Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Smith College.