Led by the saber squad's 9-0 performance, the women's fencing team defeated Yale 16-11 on Sunday at the first half of the Ivy League Championship, held at the University of Pennsylvania. But the tournament's other results were not as positive, with the women losing their two other matches while the men dropped all three.
Still, Head Coach Atilio Tass expressed optimism.
"The results themselves are showing the strengths of the opponents," he said. "The team did well, even if the results don't reflect that."
The women's saber squad, which posted a 15-12 mark for the day, was the only squad to finish over .500 for the Bears. Randy Alevi '10 and Deborah Gorth '09.5 led the way with five wins apiece, while Charlotte Gartenberg '08 followed with four wins.
The epee squad came through in the clutch with a 6-3 record against Yale. Jennifer Hausmann '07, Christine Livoti '08 and Christina Salvatore '09 each contributed three wins in epee. Foilist Kirsten Lynch '10 also won three bouts.
"I was really happy with how the women's team fenced," Hausmann said. "We knew it was hard competition, but we went in strong and really fought for it, which (showed) when we beat Yale. The women knew they could do it and then went out and made it happen."
The women fell both to Columbia, ranked No. 2 in the country, and Princeton by the same 18-9 score that the Bears lost to the Tigers at the Feb. 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Brandeis Invitational.
"I think we could have fenced better against Princeton, but we fought hard, and I think next year we should be able to take Princeton down," Hausmann said.
The men's side was a different story. The Bears bowed to extremely strong competition, including two nationally ranked teams, No. 4 Columbia, which defeated Bruno 26-1, and No. 10 Princeton, which downed the Bears 21-6. The Bears also lost a 21-6 decision to Yale. Dan Mahoney '07 led the team with a 6-3 record in the saber, but no other fencer won more than two bouts.
Mahoney said he could not explain the results.
"We could have done a lot better," he said. "For some reason, it just seemed like everyone was having a bad day on the same day."
"But," he added, "things can only go up for next time."
The Bears have turned their attention to the second half of the Ivy League Championship, to be held at Harvard on Feb. 25. The women will face Harvard, Penn and Cornell, while the men will face Harvard and Penn. The team will use the bye weekend to train hard.
"We're going to do a little bit more physical conditioning to get us stronger and hope that the rest falls into place," Mahoney said.
The added time off should help Bruno refocus. "We'll go back to the basics to focus on the technical aspect," Tass said.
The women will try to improve upon their performance at last year's Ivy League Championship, when they beat only one other school, Princeton. 2006 was Brown's initial season competing in the Ivy League. This year, the women have three matches to beat that mark.
"We're really looking forward to increasing that," Hausmann said. "I think our really solid performance this past weekend gives the team confidence for the next competition at Harvard, where we have a good chance."
