The North Carolina fencing team found its form at the Philadelphia Invitational on Saturday, turning in its most complete performance of the year, with the women going 5-0 as the men went 4-1.
What happened?
The Tar Heel women opened the day with a 15-12 win over Cornell, thanks in large part to UNC winning seven of the nine bouts in foil. After a pair of 23-4 victories over Sacred Heart and Farleigh Dickinson, the Tar Heels defeated New Jersey Institute of Technology 22-5, leaving one more match against Drew University.
The Rangers took the first bout of the match, but UNC won the final 26, giving the Tar Heels a 26-1 victory and a perfect record on the day.
UNC’s men also found their stiffest competition in the day’s first match, as they fell to NYU 16-11. In the second match of the day, the Tar Heels trailed Sacred Heart 12-6, needing to win eight of nine saber bouts to salvage a victory. But UNC did just that, going 8-1 and pulling out a 14-13 victory.
North Carolina won its final three matches of the day, defeating John’s Hopkins (16-11), NJIT (14-13), and Haverford (23-4) to finish the day 4-1 overall.
Who stood out?
Head coach Ron Miller was most impressed by the overall performance of both teams rather than singling out one or two fencers in particular. For the men, senior captain Theo Onigbinde provided leadership, especially with one assistant coach and a number of teammates ailing with the flu.
On the women’s side, the Tar Heels finished the event with a 43-6 record in foil bouts, led by Carlexa Fevry (7-0) and Amanda Lalezarian (8-1). Meredith Bozentka led the Tar Heels with a 10-1 record in saber and Samantha Galina finished epee at 9-2.
