Crimson fencer Bernadette Drankowski lunged forward but the point of her foil blade came up short of her opponent's neck. Rather than clearing Drankowski's blade to the side and responding with a counter-attack, Rhode Island College fencer Joleen Morinho obligingly left the point inches from her vest so that Drankowski, after a momentary pause, could push the foil forward for the touch.

Such uninspiring fencing dominated the Harvard womens team's adequate rather than brilliant 15-1 thrashing of the heavy-footed foursome from Rhode Island College last night at the IAB.

Missing three fencers from last year's A-1 quartet due to graduation, the Crimson women had little chance to test their new mettle against the inept, unskilled Rhodies. As Captain Kathy Lowry discovered after a somewhat sluggish start in the opening bout of the match, easy victories required no more than straightforward quick lunges with no fakes.

After dropping two of her first five touches to Loretta Jeffries, the only Rhode Island fencer who moved back and forth on the balls of her feet rather than clomping up and down like a flat-footed Frankenstein, Lowry captured 18 of her last 19 points in winning all four of her bouts.

Lowry's opponents stood mesmirized as she darted forward to capture quick touches before they had any chance to plan their defense.

Lowry's less experienced teammates overcame the Rhodies in less devastating fashion. Their one defeat came when Brankowski lost, 5-2, to Kathy Trier, after falling behind, 4-0.

Drankowski fenced hesitantly against Trier, losing most of her touches on Trier counter-attacks after parries of tentative straight lunges or beat attacks.

Sophomore Suzy Rivitz and sophomore Mary Holland each captured all of their bouts, though Holland twice went down to the wire at 4-4 before coming back to win. Rivitz mixed simple beat attacks and parries with high feints, then looping disengages for low touches. She lost only eight points in her four bouts, several of those coming when she rather lazily failed to retreat after her lunges came up short.

On the strip next to the varsity's, the J.V. women's fencers pasted Rhode Island 15-1 and two of them, well-skilled freshman Carolyn Powell and junior Jenny Laforet looked particularly polished as they put away easy victories and made all but Lowry on the varsity concerned about the security of their places in the top four.