The North Carolina fencing team competed this past weekend in the first team dual meets of the year, the Elite Invitational in Philadelphia, Penn. with both the men’s and women’s teams finishing with a 2-3 record.
What happened?
Each of the teams were able to pick up solid wins, with the women’s team beating the host, Penn, by a score of 14-13, and the men’s team outlasting Ohio State 14-13.
The other victories came against the women’s Air Force squad and the Johns Hopkins men’s team. The women's team handily beat out Air Force 17-10, and the men’s team took down Johns Hopkins 18-9.
In the team's first team tournament this year, UNC’s head coach Matt Jednak was happy with how the Tar Heels performed.
“We’d had individual tournaments, but this is the first time we got to work as a unit, and I thought it was great showing for our team," Jednak said. "With me being a first-year head coach and quite a number of our players being first years, it was really interesting to see them come together and work hard.”
He also was proud of how they held each other accountable and helped build each other up.
“I thought they were very supportive to each other while they were competing and they had great critique for their team which was awesome to see,” he said. “And when they got on the strip, they were able to execute and zone in and put themselves out there against some high-level competition.”
