FAIRFIELD, CT – The Vassar men's fencing team competed in its last meet of the fall semester at Sunday's Sacred Heart Traditional Multi-Meet. It was a tough competition against primarily Division I opponents, but the Brewers had solid individual performances.

Vassar opened the first round against Harvard, where the Brewers dropped the 6-21 decision. Due to a limited Crimson foil group, the Brewers added three victories at the weapon to go 3-6. At epee, senior Nishay Bhatnagar (Livingston, NJ) recorded a 5-3 bout victory, while junior Jack Plumer (Bel Air, MD) won 5-2 against his first Crimson foe. In his final bout, Bhatnagar was edged 4-5 as Harvard won the weapon 7-2. The Crimson pulled off the 8-1 decision at saber, with junior Conor Travaglione (East Northport, NY) winning 5-4 in the second bout.

The Brewers faced the host school in the second round, but the Pioneers won the close fight 15-12. Each weapon was decided by one point, with the Brewers falling 4-5 in all three. Senior Caleb Klein (Chappaqua, NY) at foil went 2-1 after winning his second two bouts 5-2 and then 5-4. In the first bout, Sophomore Benjamin Lee (Tacoma, WA) earned a 5-0 sweep but dropped the next two. Sophomore Frank Ryan (Winnetka, IL) subbed in the third bout and won a close 5-4 against Sacred Heart's Trent Miller.

Epee struggled at first against Sacred Heart, but Plumer went 2-1 and Bhatnagar and Alexander Moyse (Montclair, NJ) each added one victory. Travaglione went 5-0 in his first bout against Dom Bartelo and then edged Vijay Ganta 5-4 to finish the round at 2-1. Sophomore Wolff Gilligan (New York, NY) posted a 2-1 mark with a 5-1 in the first bout and then a 5-3 win in the second.

Vassar had a break in the third round and then fenced NYU in the fourth. It proved to be another challenging field, with the Brewers falling 7-20. NYU took the foil 7-2, but Ryan and Lee managed to add wins. The Vassar saber fencers had difficulty getting touches against the Violets until Gilligan managed a 5-2 win over Bryan Moise. Travaglione closed the bout by slipping past NYU's Nick Wu 5-4. NYU went on to win 6-3 at epee, but Bhatnagar had a solid 2-1 performance. Plumer added the Brewers' third win in the round.

Princeton claimed a 21-6 win over Vassar by sweeping foil 9-0 and winning 6-3 in saber and epee. Travaglione went 2-1 against the Tigers. Then in epee, Plumer won 5-4 against Levy Joseph, and senior Alden Pierson Smela (Minneapolis, MN) won his first bout 5-4 over Tristan Szapay. Bhatnagar also added a 5-3 win.

The Brewers closed out against Penn State in the sixth round. Epee dropped the 3-6 mark, while saber and foil lost 2-7. Plumer had an impressive epee performance despite the score and swept 3-0 with a 5-0 win to close his third bout. Gilligan and Travaglione had a saber win, while Lee and Alex Yim (Orlando, FL) had foil wins.

Vassar now has a slight break until they travel for the Cleveland State Invite on Jan. 15.