Women's Fencing Defeats Defending Champion Nittany Lions :: Victory over defending champions highlighted a perfect weekend for the Owls

Jan. 27, 2008

STATE COLLEGE - The #9 Temple women's fencing team couldn't have asked for a better weekend as the Cherry and White went a perfect 4-0 at the Penn State Multi-Meet, including a 14-13 win over the defending national champion #4 Nittany Lions.

The Owls (10-3) pulled out a 14-13 upset over the host Nittany Lions, highlighting an outstanding weekend for the squad. The Cherry and White also defeated North Carolina 18-9, Haverford 20-7, and Drew 24-3.

"The win against Penn State was huge for our team," said Assistant Coach Bradley Baker. "What this win does is show our team that with a strong, focused, effort, we can beat anyone in the country."

Leading the way for the Owls was junior epeeist Kaitlyn Uckert, who went 7-0 for the day. Other top performers for the Owls were freshmen saberist Audrey Barroso, who finished at 9-1 and foilists sophomore Abigail Schifferle, junior Nina Gernes and junior Sabrina Shapiro, who all went 5-1 for the meet.

The key to the perfect weekend were the performances of the foil and sabre squads. Each went undefeated on the day at 4-0. The epee squad went 3-1, losing only to Penn State. Foil had a perfect 9-0 result against Haverford.

"I was very pleased with the consistency of our fencing throughout the day," said Coach Nikki Franke. "We were very tough against every opponent we faced."

The #9 Owls return to action next weekend when they travel to Chicago for the Northwestern Multi-Meet.

Individual records:

Epee: Alyssa Lombardi 3-1 Brianna Ferrara 1-3 Grace Wu 5-3 Kaitlyn Uckert 7-0 Kristin Howell 3-1 Marla Nacey 1-5

Foil: Abigail Schifferle 5-1 Melissa Parker 4-1 Meredith Bratton 5-3 Nina Gernes 5-1 Sabrina Shapiro 5-1 Sam Myles 4-1

Sabre: Audrey Barroso 9-1 Christie Griffith 6-3 Sam Pascarelli 5-3 Sara Haase 5-4