In a stunning season opener, the men's and women's fencing teams sliced their way to decisive victories over MIT last night, walking away from the strip with 17-10 and 12-4 scores respectively.

The swordsmen displayed impressive depth throughout the meet with three members of the nine-man team going 2-1 and another three--captain and lead epeeman Bill Marshall, epeeman Steve Kauffer, and all-American sabreman David Hevman--turning in perfect 3-0 scores.

Both the epee and sabre squads dominated their rivals throughout the evening, while the foil squad, facing a team led by another all-American, fell by a narrow one-bout margin.

"People have been working hard all fall and the quality of the coaching paid off," Marshall said after the meet. "People have seen so much dedication on the part of the coaches and they just carried that over onto the strip."

Although traditionally the MIT women's team has been one of the Crimson's toughest opponents (last year Harvard won an 8-8 match on indicators), the swordswomen dominated the meet from the moment they walked onto the strip.

The score never came closer than 6-3 and two of the four team members--sophomore Vivi Fuchs and captain Carolyn Powell--conquered all of their opponents. Junior Amy Jones. making her varsity debut, and junior Beth Schwinn each went 2-2.

"We've got a tough schedule coming up and it was very psychologically important for us to win this meet," Powell explained, adding elatedly. "We scored a decisive victory against a team that traditionally gives us a lot of trouble."

Challenge

The fencers are slated for a heavy winter schedule, beginning with the Christmas Invitational and meets against Brandeis. Brown and Rhode Island next week. But last night's coup has inspired the Crimson, and members of both teams predict a strong season.