HARVARD WOMEN’S FENCING

Outside of the sabré trio’s 4-0-1 match record—upping the weapon’s mark to 10-0-1 for the year—the Harvard women had a tough time finding the few extra individual bout wins necessary to notch team wins. With the competition much stronger than fencers the Crimson faced at the Tradition Tournament in early December, Harvard came away with its first three losses of the season.

The major bright spot of the day came with the Crimson’s second victory over Penn State this season—though it was a 14-13 nailbiter rather than the 21-6 rout of the Nittany Lions in December.

“For me [as] a freshman, it’s still pretty nerve-wrecking going into [the tournament],” said épéeist Claire Dinhut. “But [it] being the second time we faced Penn State also, we had more confidence, since we had done well against them last time.”

With the Ivy League Round Robins in two weeks, the Crimson women will have to put the losses of 16-11, 15-12, and 16-11 to Columbia, Notre Dame, and Ohio State, respectively, behind them. If the past is any indication, Harvard finished 2-3 at last year’s closely contested St. John’s Invitational and then went on to a second place finish at the round robins.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleb.lee@thecrimson.com.