The Harvard fencing team suffered a frustrating setback in its quest for the Ivy League championship last Friday in Ithaca, N.Y., losing to a stubborn Cornell squad, 14-13.

The Crimson fencers dominated the first two rounds of action, building an 11-7 lead. In the third round the team needed only to win three out of the nine bouts to secure a victory, but the squad fell apart and could manage to win just two.

"That last round was so very painful to watch and see bout after bout go down the drain," captain Eugene White said after the match. "We started out so well that we really should have won."

Harvard showed greatest strength in the sabre division. Juniors Gordon Rutledge and Steve Hobbs were both 2-1 for the match. The good showing in sabre, which in the past has been the team's weakest area, was the only satisfying point in the contest.

Holding an 11-7 lead after two rounds, the final round should have been routine; but instead, it turned into an exciting, but for Harvard a frustrating, round of fencing.

Hobbs started the round in sabre with a solid 5-3 win over Joe Sakikas of Cornell. The team then only needed to win two out of the remaining eight bouts.

Somehow they couldn't pull it off. Loren Joseph and Rutledge both lost their sabre bouts, 5-4. The Cornell team then swept all three foil bouts. With the match now tied. Sam Anderson dropped his match in epee.

But then White, the only Harvard fencer to go undefeated for the day, brought the match back into a tie by whipping his opponent, 5-0.

So everything came down to the final bout. White's impressive victory should have been the inspiration to victory, but it just didn't happen.

Tense Scene

In a quiet and very tense atmosphere, southpaw Eric Read went ahead of his Cornell opponet, 4-3, but fell 5-4.

"It was just plain disgusting," coach Edo Marion said yesterday. "We were fencing well, the officiating was good, and only a Harvard team could end up losing in those conditions."

The team now has a 1-1 record in the Ivy League.