Yale Athletics

Yale’s fencing squads trounced Sacred Heart University in the Yale Invitational last Saturday and celebrated their graduating seniors in the process.

Both the men’s and women’s fencing teams won decisive victories against fellow Connecticut school Sacred Heart. The men’s squad recorded a 19–8 win, winning all nine bouts in the epee. The women’s team likewise dominated their face-off, winning 20–7. 

Following Saturday’s victories, the Bulldogs then faced off at the Tri-State Shark Showcase in Brooklyn on Sunday in the final regular season meet of the season. The men’s team posted three victories, while the women’s squad finished their season on a high with a victory against Hunter College in their last regular season bout of the season.

“It was nice to see all of the senior’s friends spectating and cheering us on, even if some of them didn’t know what was going on [or] how to follow fencing,” foil Erica Hooshi ’25 wrote to the News. “We always spend so much time with just the fencing team, we forget that the seniors and all of us have such a supportive community here at Yale.”

The women’s fencing team finished the season with a 16–7 record. In a dominant outing against Sacred Heart, the Bulldogs swept nine foil bouts and dropped a solitary epee match-up, coming away with eight decisions in their favor. 

Aside from their victory against Hunter College at Shark Showcase, the Bulldogs dropped bouts against Ivy League rivals Princeton University (18–9), Columbia University (24–3) and the University of Pennsylvania (19–8), as well as against both St. John’s University and hosts Long Island University.

“It felt great to compete in front of my friends at the Yale Invitational,” foil fencer Olivia Ren ’26 told the News. “They had never seen me fence before, so I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to show them my sport. Also, everyone supporting and cheering made the meet super fun and exciting.”

The men’s squad came away from the Shark Showcase with three victories, including over Penn (15–12) and Long Island University (22–5). The highlight of the night was a clean sweep of Hunter, where the Bulldogs won every bout in each of epee, foil and saber.

At the Yale Invitational, the Bulldogs honored seven seniors, including Jonah Cho ’23, Allan Ding ’24, Andre Papasavas ’23 and Maxwell Yee ’23 from the men’s squad. Julia Balch ’23, Sydney Hirsch ’24 and Linda Liu ’23 were honored on the women’s squad. 

“It was a really good warmup before Ivies next weekend and really brought to light some things that we need to work on,” fencer Helen Tan ’25 told the News. “I’m super excited for Ivies because I know that we will take everything we’ve experienced this season and fence our best next weekend.”

Next up, the Bulldogs will compete at the Ivy League Round Robin at Cornell University from Feb. 11 to 12.