POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (December 3, 2017) – The Vassar College men's fencing team played host to five teams in the CollegeFencing360.com Top 10 Poll Sunday, welcoming six strong teams to Walker Field House for the 2017 Tradition Multi-Meet to finish the home slate for Vassar.

Vassar would see its 13-match winning streak come to an end on Sunday, but battled strong against some of the best in the nation, earning a win in round two over Sacred Heart University, 16-11. Vassar fell to No. 8 Harvard University 20-7 to get the day underway, before dropping a 22-5 decision to No. 4 University of Pennsylvania. After a lunch break, Vassar would fall 18-9 to No. 6 Princeton University, before dropping a narrow 16-11 outcome to No. 6 Penn State.

VC finished the night with another pair of tough defeats to New Jersey Institute of Technology 15-12 and New York University, 19-8. The Brewers did have a bevy of solid outings on the day, highlighted by another strong day from freshman sabre fencer Evin Heintz and senior epee fencer Jonathan Alperstein.

In fact, the sabre team as a whole was strong throughout the day, going 32-31 on the day while posting two squad victories against Sacred Heart and NYU. VC also narrowly lost 5-4 to Princeton, PSU and NJIT, showing the depth and strength of the sabre team for the Brewers.

Heintz started the day with back-to-back 3-0 rounds, highlighted by a 5-2 win over Harvard's NCAA qualifier Erwin Cai. He also was 2-1 against Penn, PSU and 3-0 against NYU, with a 5-2 win over an NCAA Championships competitor from last season in Adam Green of UPenn. Heintz is now 46-9 on the season for the year.

Senior Eli Polston chalked up 10 victories on the day for the sabre team, including a 3-0 round against SHU and two wins apiece against Princeton, NJIT and NYU. One of his wins against Princeton came against Tiger standout Edward Chin, last year's 16^th place finisher at nationals.

In epee, Alperstein was strong throughout the day, putting others on notice that he is back and ready to make another trip to the NCAA Championships this year. The senior went 13-5 for Vassar, posting three perfect rounds against the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University and NJIT. He also finished with two victories over Harvard to start the day.

During the day, Alperstein competed against some foes he saw last year at nationals, knocking off Albert Chien of Harvard 5-2, who took seventh last year at the NCAA Championships in epee. Alperstein also defeated PSU All-American Anton Piskovatskov 5-3; besting Edward Ezcerra of NJIT 5-4 in a thrilling match.

The epee team also got five wins from Daniel Swerzenski throughout the day, including two against NJIT, while freshman Michael Jaklitsch collected two bout wins against Sacred Heart University. Senior George Whiteside subbed in periodically in epee for Vassar, posting four wins as well.

The Vassar foil team was led by sophomore Noe Berger and his five victories, chalking up two against Sacred Heart and Penn State. Freshman Adlai Brandt-Ogman posted a nice 5-2 win over Simon Rizell of NJIT, a national qualifier last year, while knocking off 2017 NCAA Championships competitor Thomas Dudley of Princeton University 5-3 as well.  

The Brewers will be back in action after the semester break traveling to Silicon Valley and Palo Alto, California for the Western Invitational, hosted by Stanford University January 14.