Spurred on by a stunning third round performance by the saber team, Harvard's swordsmen slashed their way to a 14-13 come-from-behind victory yesterday versus the blade brandishers from MIT.

The match began rather slowly for the Crimson as both the epee and saber teams were foiled in the opening round by the Technicians, losing their bouts 1-2. In the foil event, however, Harvard's All-American, captain Phillipe Bennett kept things close as he teamed up with freshman Eugene Vastola to outfence the traditionally fine MIT foil squad, 2-1.

The second round did prove to be much better for the swordsmen as the saber and epee teams were again cut down by the same 1-2 score.

On the Defensive

Nick Tepe took over the winning ways of John Chitman in the saber and Matt Simmons pulled out his bout in the epee. And while both John Majors and Vastola were victorious in their foil events, Bennett was caught on the defensive against his opponent and lost on running time.

"When you're behind on running time the only way to go out is to attack," Crimson mentor Edo Marion said. "When Bennett didn't, and we went into the final round down 8-10, I had given up hope for winning."

Ah ye of little faith! Before you could say en garde the Crimson sabers struck. First Larry Tu zorroed a win over his opponent, then Mike Bierer out-engineered his Engineer sword partner, and finally Chitman delivered his second death blow of the night to complete the saber sweep and put Harvard on top for the first time of the evening 11-10.

"At first there was no moving--no one knew what to do, but all of a sudden a miracle happened in saber and we squeezed it out," Marion said.

Outslashed Opponent

The epee squad also pulled an about face with Simmons winning his second match and John Hirschfeld turning in a brilliant performance to outduel his man. Although only Bennett was able to out-slash his opponent in the third round foil bouts, the victory was in hand, 14-13.

Radcliffe's swordswomen did not fare as well however as the watchtown women from Brandeis cut the Crimson down with relative ease, 16-9.

Only freshman Celine Larkin and junior Leonida Rasenas escaped the wrath of the Judges' swords with any regularity. Larkin handled all five of her Brandeis bladesters in impressive fashion.

"Celine was very aggressive and fought very well," captain Sarah Kimball said yesterday. "Both she and Leonida used their heads which is the key to competitive fencing."

Rasenas captured three of her five bouts and Susan Lambiris chipped in one victory to account for the Cliffe scoring. The match was a rotation of five swordswomen all competing in the foil event.

"Brandeis is a very strong team with the reputation of eating up people," Kimball said, "so it wasn't unexpected that we lost."

"We have to work on our speed and getting used to the pressure of real bouts--it's a lot dikferent from practice," she added.