CHICAGO, Ill. (February 4, 2012) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's fencing team had a good showing on Saturday afternoon against some of the top fencing programs in the country at the Northwestern University Invitational, defeating the University of North Carolina 14-13 and scoring an impressive 7-2 epee victory over the University of Notre Dame, the defending National Champions. With the match tied at 13-all, senior foilist Alexis Clyburn (Hillside, N.J.) won the deciding bout against the Tar Heels to give the Ducks the victory.
Stevens also defeated Cal Tech 25-2 and Fairleigh Dickinson 15-12. The Ducks fell to Division I powers Notre Dame, Wayne State University and host Northwestern.
“Beating UNC was definitely one of the most exciting moments of my fencing career,” said head coach Linda Vollkommer-Lynch, a 37-year veteran. “I'm so proud of our team. They really were playing at their peak and it was amazing and almost unbelievable to see them have such success at this level. Beating UNC and having epee beat out the national champions was really great”
In the Ducks' bout with Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish began with mostly reserves in the lineup. Stevens began the matchup by ripping off four-straight wins, however, forcing the Notre Dame coach to pull out all the stops to prevent the upset. The Irish starters were eventually able to hold back the Ducks, but the epee squad came away from the match with an impressive 7-2 victory.
Individually, sophomore Briana Nieradka (West Windsor, N.J.) won the 100th match of her career against FDU, and went 12-5 on the day to lead the epeeists. Krystal Perkins (Palmdale, Calif.) also put up a 12-5 record in epee for the Ducks. Sienna Batzli (Maplewood, N.J.) was a solid 9-8 in the third epee slot.
Clyburn put up the best foil record at 9-7, while junior Trinity Sheppard (Frederic, Md.) boasted an impressive 3-0 record on the day, including a victory over the Fighting Irish.
Junior Juliet Turalski (Maplewood, N.J.) was 11-7 at sabre to lead that squad.
The Ducks will remain in Chicago on Super Bowl Sunday, where they will take on five more top-flight fencing schools in day two on the Northwestern University Invitational. Full coverage can be found on StevensDucks.com.
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