In what amounted to a disappointing result at best, both the Harvard men's and women's fencing teams fell to Princeton and Yale on Saturday at the Malkin Athletic Center.

The women's team (7-3, 2-3 Ivy), jockeying for Ivy League title position, fell hard to Yale, Ivy champions the past three years, in the afternoon. The Yale loss followed a subpar showing against Princeton in the morning's match. The men (1-7, 0-4 Ivy) were outscored 44-10 on the day. YALE (WOMEN)  24 HARVARD  6 YALE (MEN)  20 HARVARD  7 PRINCETON (WOMEN)  22 HARVARD  10 PRINCETON (MEN)  24 HARVARD  3

Princeton was able to put the Harvard women behind the eight ball early on, jumping out to a 4-1 start. However, a late surge by the women's foil team spoiled Princeton's auspicious start. Princeton went on to defeat Harvard 22-10.

The tide of momentum turned when freshman Nicole Jarrett finished off top Princeton fencer Orsi Szotyory-Grove by a score of 5-3. Jarrett turned in an undefeated morning, finishing 4-0 and defeating her opponents by a total score of 20 touches to 12.

The afternoon held an equally painful contest for the Harvard fencers, as the women lost decidedly, 24-6. Women's captain Gabrielle Novacek said she saw it coming.

"For a week and a half leading up to the tournament, everyone was pretty excited," Novacek said. "Then when we got to the actual date, it looked as if some of the fire had been lost. Everyone seemed to be really tired and quite a few of our fencers had been sick."

A lack of mental preparedness and focus seemed to keep the Crimson from its goal all day. Novacek said she knew that the long break between Princeton and Yale would not help the cause.

"Whenever you have to stop and cool down, it can hurt you," she said. "We were not quite with it. One thing that shocked us a little bit was the fact that we thought Princeton had defeated Yale. When we found out that Yale had won, we looked intimidated."

Against Yale, the women's troubles snowballed as Yale entered the contest with confidence and momentum following its defeat of Princeton. In one of the Crimson's few bright spots against Yale, sophomore Tammy Knutsen shut down Yale junior Hannah Appel in a drawn-out 5-4 match.

"No one should have left yesterday upset with their individual effort," Novacek said. "Jarrett had an excellent performance, especially considering she fenced through a migraine for her Yale bouts."

Harvard's men succumbed to Princeton almost immediately, stealing only three matches away from Princeton and losing 24-3. Against Yale, the men started better--eventually knotting the sabre score at 3-3--but lost, 20-7.

"Going into Yale, we knew that they didn't expect much from us," sophomore Davin Chew said. "We were really psyched after our first win because our plan was to go out and surprise them. Generally we do much better in afternoon matches--we're more used to that."

Harvard will next compete in the IFA Championships on Saturday, Feb. 27. The Ivy season ends the next day against Cornell.