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Sophomore All-American Jan Viviani will lead the Irish at the Duke Open.
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Notre Dame Fencing Heads To Duke Open
Second-ranked Irish men, seventh-ranked women ready for key showdown with Stanford.
Feb. 8, 2001
The Notre Dame men's and women's fencing teams will look to
continue their recent success this weekend while competing in the
six-team Duke Open, to be held Feb. 9-10 at Card Gymnasium on the campus
of Duke University.
The second-ranked Notre Dame men (20-0) will look to remain
unbeaten on Friday beginning at 8:00 a.m., with bouts versus North
Carolina, eighth-ranked Air Force, top-ranked Stanford, Duke and Ohio
State. The seventh-ranked Irish women (17-3) then will face the same
five teams on Saturday (beginning at 8:00 a.m.), with the top opponents
including third-ranked Stanford and 10th-ranked Ohio State.
The Irish men head into the competition riding a 36-match
winning streak and-by opening with wins over UNC and Air Force-would
post the program's longest winning streak since a 50-match streak from
1990-93.
SCOUTING THE FIELD
- Stanford returns 10 of its 12 fencers who led the Cardinal to
a fourth-place finish at the 2000 NCAA combined fencing championship
with 163 points (just eight behind Notre Dame and St. John's and 12 back
of champion Penn State). Stanford's top returner is men's foilist Felix
Reichling, who beat current Notre Dame sophomore Ozren Debic in the 2000
NCAA title bout (15-10), while Alex Wood also returns after placing
fifth in the 2000 NCAA foil competition.
- Other top returners for Stanford include men's epeeist Eric Tribett (fifth at
2000 NCAAs), men's sabreman Robert Owens (seventh) and women's foilist Ute Breden (eighth).
- The host Blue Devils return a pair of men's fencers who
competed in the 2000 NCAA Championship, in foilist David Bright and
sabreman Andrew Mahen (both finished outside the top 20). Duke women's
foilist Nyasha London also returns after competing in the 2000 NCAAs.
- Ohio State should be a formidable opponent in men's epee,
returning a pair of fencers-Geoff Kane (11th-place) and Alan Jones
(16th)-who competed in the 2000 NCAAs. The Buckeye women have one NCAA
returner in All-American foilist Fane Groes (she placed seventh at the
2000 NCAAs).
- OSU placed 12th at the 2000 NCAAs, one spot behind North
Carolina-which does not return any of its four NCAA competitors from a
year ago (most notably the NCAA runner-up at sabre, Kim Treiber).
- Notre Dame and Air Force will meet for the second consecutive week,
after the Irish men and women posted a pair of 20-7 wins over the
Falcons at the Notre Dame Open. Air Force's top returner is men's foil
All-American Seth Kelsey (ninth at 2000 NCAAs) in addition to 2000 NCAA
competitors Chris Jones (men's foil) and Elia Burrill (women's epee).
SCOUTING THE IRISH
- The Irish men's epee squad could face the toughest competition
of the weekend, with Notre Dame's four-man squad led by sophomore
All-American Jan Viviani (30-3 season record, 62-10 for his career),
senior Scott Gabler (33-9, 49-11) and junior All-American Brian Casas
(31-14, 110-39).
- Debic heads to Duke with a 29-1 season record (69-4 for his
career) while junior Steve Mautone (21-8, 100-38) and sophomore Forrest
Walton (25-9, 59-16) have turned in solid 2001 seasons to round out the
foil squad.
- The Irish men's team has been most dominant in sabre, led by
defending NCAA champion Gabor Szelle (27-2, 124-7) and his classmate
Andre Crompton (31-5, 96-14), plus senior All-American Andrzej Bednarski
(19-3, 112-20) and sophomore Matt Fabricant (32-1, 55-5).
- Sophomore All-American foilist Liza Boutsikaris (44-11, 79-13
career) continues to lead a surging women's foil squad that also
includes impressive freshman Maggie Jordan (38-9).
- The Irish will travel just three women's epeeists to the Duke
Open, led by sophomore All-Americans Meagan Call (44-11, 81-28) and Anna
Carnick (41-15, 78-25) and senior captain Kim DeMaio (29-22, 86-69).
- Notre Dame's deep women's sabre unit is led by senior captain
Carianne McCullough (26-4, 68-16) and sophomore All-American Natalia
Mazur (28-7,77-11), plus a pair of promising freshmen in Destanie Milo
(33-5) and Jessie Filkins (25-6).
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