Princeton University Athletics
Fencing Aims for Ivy Title Sunday at Penn
February 25, 2010 | Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing
PRINCETON -- Both Princeton fencing teams did all they could last Sunday to begin their pursuit of twin Ivy League titles. This Sunday will determine if the hot start will result in a return to the top.
If the Tigers are able to close out an Ivy title, it would be the first since 2001 for either Princeton team and the first for fourth-year head coach Zoltan Dudas. Since Princeton doubled up on Ivy titles nine years ago, Columbia or Harvard (or both, in the case of two split men's titles) was the champion on 13 of 16 occasions between men and women. Last season, Penn was the men's winner and Harvard the women's champ.
The Columbia-Harvard run followed a period for Princeton from 1994-2001 in which the Tiger men and women combined to win or share nine of 16 titles.
Each Tiger team defeated Brown, Penn and Yale in last weekend's first half of the round-robin at Cornell. This Sunday, Princeton will face Columbia at 11 a.m., Cornell (women only) at 1:15 p.m. and Harvard at 3 p.m.
On the men's side, Princeton (3-0) leads Yale (2-2), Brown (1-1), Harvard (1-1), Penn (1-2) and Columbia (0-2). The different number of matches resulted from whether a team received its bye round last week or this week, and whether its women's team faced Cornell last week or this week, resulting in another bye for the men.
On the women's side, Princeton (3-0) is tied with Sunday's first opponent, Columbia (3-0), and leads Penn (3-1), Harvard (2-1), Cornell (1-3), Brown (0-3) and Yale (0-4).
In the latest USFCA poll, released Feb. 17, both the men (19-3, 3-0 Ivy) and the women (24-3, 3-0) were ranked No. 4 in the nation and tops among Ivy schools. In a display of the conference's strength, all six Ivy men's teams and all seven Ivy women's teams are either ranked or receiving votes in the top-10 poll.
The Ivy League office will be updating its site here from Penn's Hutchinson Gym.