NEW YORK (February 14, 2018) -- It was a fun Valentine's Day for the Vassar College men's fencing team, as they traveled down to the Big Apple to take on a few of the best teams in the nation in No. 4 Columbia and No. 10 NYU in action from Columbia's Blue Gymnasium for the 2018 Historical Meet. 

Vassar would fall in both of their matches, but there were some strong performances by all involved. The Brewers battled the host Lions to an 18-9 defeat, but the sabre squad picked up four victories. In that round, Vassar's sabre team won the first two bouts thanks to a 5-3 win by freshman Evin Heintz followed by an exciting 5-4 win by senior Eli Polston over Jasef Cohen. Heintz made the score 3-1 in the second round with a 5-2 victory over Cohen, but Columbia tied the squad score at three bouts apiece going into the final round of fencing. The Lions earned the first two bouts of the round to clinch the sabre win, despite a thrilling 5-4 loss by Heintz to Alex Walker and a victory by Polston over Dawson Sieradzky to finish sabre fencing. 

In foil against CU, Vassar earned three bout wins, led by the pair from sophomore Noe Berger in a 6-3 defeat in the weapon. Berger fell 5-4 in his first bout to James Sands, but followed that up with a 5-1 win over Albert Zhang and a 5-3 victory over John Avendano. Senior Tom Racek also scored a 5-2 win over Avendano, and was narrowly out-touched on the ninth bout of the match by Zhang 5-4. CU's famed epee team showed its strength on Wednesday evening as well, as the Lions earned a 7-2 weapon victory. Senior Daniel Swerzenski earned a hard-fought 5-4 win over Sacha Schouker, while senior Jonathan Alperstein also knocked off Schouker 5-4 while narrowly missing against 2017 NCAA competitor Porter Hesslegrave. 

Against the Violets of NYU, the Brewers dropped an 18-9 finish but VC again was competitive against a top-10 team for the second match of the night. In epee, the Brewers pushed the Violets to a 5-4 decision as Vassar went up 2-0 early thanks to a 5-3 win for Alperstein over 2017 NCAA qualifier Hans Engel. Swerzenski followed with a thrilling 5-4 win over Alex Crepeaux, but NYU pushed back with four straight wins to hold a 4-2 edge. Freshman Michael Jaklitsch was cool and calculated in a 3-2 win over Will Zhang, but Sam Bekker knocked off Roman Guglielmo 5-3 to clinch the decision for the Violets. Freshman Abram Gregory subbed in and earned a 5-2 win over Lucas Hsing. 

In foil, Racek was able to chalk up two victories with a 5-1 win over Eric Zobel and a 5-2 triumph over Yash Srivastav, while Berger also topped Srivastav 5-2 to open Vassar's foil scoring. The sabre squad for the Brewers fell 7-2, but Heintz did earn a very solid 5-4 win over fellow freshman Bobby Cottingham, NYU's top sabre fencer. Sophomore Graeme Mills also was able to sweep sophomore Matt Chen 5-0. 

The Brewers are back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m., taking on Johns Hopkins University for a pair of bouts before staying in Baltimore, MD to cheer on the Vassar women's fencing team during the EWFC Championships the next day.