No. 2 Irish knock off No. 1 Cardinal at Invite
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
The No. 1 sign at the top of Grace Hall will burn a little brighter after the No. 2 men's fencing team knocked off No. 1 Stanford 18-9 this weekend at the Duke Invitational.
The Irish should ascend to the top ranking in the next poll.
"I guess it feels good," foil captain Ozren Debic said about the ranking. "It's not different that it was before because we are still the same team. It's a good boost going into the post season."
The men's team will also ride a 41-match winning streak after beating North Carolina, Duke, Ohio State and Airforce in addition to the Cardinal. The Irish now own the fifth longest winning streak in Notre Dame history. The upset win against Stanford, however, was not a surprise, according to Debic.
"We all knew we were going to win," the 2000 foil runner-up said.
"I am so proud of the team," Irish head coach Yves Auriol said in a prepared statement. "Beating Stanford is a great accomplishment and they will be more than a handful at the NCAAs but so will we."
While the Irish staked their claim as the top men's team heading into the post-season, Debic remains the No. 2 foilist in the country.
He lost 5-3 to Stanford's 2000 NCAA Champ Felix Reichling. Last year, Reichling defeated Debic 15-10 in the finals. Debic is confident, however, that he can beat Reichling at the NCAAs this year.
"In the five-touch bout it goes so fast," he said. "The tempo of the bout is really fast. In any bout we fenced so far it could have gone both ways. He is good but it's just a matter of time [before I beat him] and hopefully it will be at NCAAs. I know his style of fencing. It's definitely not the type of fencing I like because it's very physical and fast —without too much tactics. It just comes down to how good shape you are in."
Debic said he will be in even better shape for his rematch with Reichling this spring.
Overall, the men had a very successful weekend. Only the men's epee squad dropped a match as they lost 4-5 to Air Force — a team they beat 8-1 last weekend.
Epee captain Jan Viviani once again led the Irish with a 14-1 record. He finished his sophomore season with a 44-4 record and now stands at 75-11 for his career. His .852 winning is the best epee winning percentage in Irish history.
In sabre, 2000 NCAA champion Gabor Szelle posted another strong weekend with a 10-1 record as the sabre squad cruised to another perfect weekend. Only Ohio State proved to be a challenge as the Buckeyes pushed the Irish in a 6-3 Notre Dame win. The sabre squad blanked North Carolina and Air Force while picking up 8-1 and 7-2 wins against Stanford and Duke, respectively.
The women's team lost its first match since the opening weekend as they fell to No. 3 Stanford 17-10.
Auriol said his team did not fence its best this weekend.
"If you are fencing a team as good as Stanford, you need to fence at your best, otherwise you have no chance," he said in a prepared statement. "We didn't have that extra spark this weekend."
Sophomore All-American Natalia Mazur said the team was shocked when the match ended and they ended up on the losing side.
"I don't think they were tough," she said. "I think we just had a brain freeze or something. They really weren't tough. It was a series of weird bout. We just couldn't believe what happened."
The Cardinal dominated the Irish across the board in the match, beating the Irish 6-3 in foil and epee and 5-4 in sabre.
Mazur was the only women's fencer who posted winning records against every team en route to a 10-3 weekend record.
Despite the loss to Stanford, the women finished the regular season successfully as they defeated Air Force, Ohio State, Duke and North Carolina.
In two weeks, the Irish host the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships as they tune up for the NCAA Championships at the end of March. With the best men's team in the country and a strong women's team, Debic thinks the Irish can finally move past the No. 2 finish they've been mired in for 5 seasons and return to the top.
"We have a chance at winning the NCAAs even though we don't have the best women's team," he said. "If the girls step it up and we fence our best, we can still win."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, February 13, 2001
