Sometimes, it's impossible to overcome long odds. Both the Harvard men's and women's fencing teams fell to nationally-ranked Columbia squads this weekend.

But for the men's team, it received some consolation after its 20-7 loss to the Lions Saturday. It beat Brown, 15-12, Saturday and then placed three people in the top six at yesterday's Williams Epee Tournament.

"We controlled the Brown match, as we were expected to," Harvard epee Ed Nadich said. "But Columbia was too strong."

Against the Lions, only Captain Peter Einaudi managed to pull out a winning record, capturing two of his three matches.

In the Williams tourney, junior Tony Loeser placed third, Nadich fourth and Franco Baseggio finished in sixth place. Princeton's Dan Nowolieski won the tournament.

Looking For Sympathy

For the women's team, there was little consolation, as it lost to Wellesley and Brown by identical 9-7 scores, bringing its weekend record to 0-3.

Captain Amy Neuhardt and Michelle Kosch pulled out the best performances this weekend, winning seven of their 11 matches.

Kosch won the Crimson's only match in the 15-1 loss to Columbia and then won three matches each against the Bruins and Wellesley. Neuhardt captured all four of her matches against Wellesley and three of four against Brown.

Neuhardt noted that the Crimson was overpowered in the Columbia match, since the Lions returned all of its players from last season's number-two ranked squad.