Princeton University Athletics
Women's Fencing Coaching Records & Program Facts
Updated following 2025-26Â season
First Match:Â Dec. 2, 1988 (at Navy)Â Â
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All-Time Record: Â 592-196-1 (.751)
Head Coaching Register
Ivy League regular-season records are listed in parentheses.
| W | L | T | Pct. | |
| Michel Sebastiani (1988-2006) | 141 (43) | 88 (52) | 0 (0) | .616 (.453) |
| Zoltan Dudas (2006-present) | 451 (96) | 108 (24) | 1 (0) | .806 (.800) |
| Total | 592 (139) | 196 (76) | 1 (0) | .751 (.647) |
Ivy League Championships (13):Â 1999, 2000, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024
National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Championship (2):Â 1993, 1994
Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships (1):Â 2000
NCAA Championships (1): 2013
Quick Facts:
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Women’s fencing attained full varsity status at Princeton in 1988.
In the program’s fifth varsity season, the 1992-93 squad delivered several program firsts. Princeton had its first winning season and won its first National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association championship, making Michel Sebastiani the first coach to win the NIWFA title at three institutions after previously winning at Cornell and New York University. Susan Ginn ’95 also won the first épée championship in NIWFA history, as women had previously competed only in foil. The team went on to finish sixth at the NCAA Championships and helped Princeton place fifth in the combined men’s and women’s standings, its best finish in 10 years.
Before 1993, Sandy Hill ’86 had been Princeton’s most recent women’s NCAA Championships participant, competing in the event in 1986 when it was held at Princeton. At the time, women’s fencing was a club sport.
Beginning in 1990, the NCAA Championship was a combined men’s and women’s event. In 1993, the men’s épée and foil squads combined with the women’s foil team to lead Princeton to a fifth-place finish, its best in 10 years. In 1994, the men’s épée and saber squads combined with the women’s foil team to take fourth place at the championships, while the men earned an individual national championship in épée. Princeton won the combined NCAA title for the first time in 2013. In 2025-26, the NCAA held separate men’s and women’s championships for the first time since the championship became a combined event in 1990, and the Princeton women finished third.
Eva Petschnigg ’03 became Princeton’s first women’s NCAA individual national champion when she defeated top-seeded Monique de Bruin of Stanford, 15-13, to win the women’s foil crown in 2000. Eliza Stone ’13 became the second Princeton woman to win an NCAA title when she took the saber crown in 2013, and Anna Van Brummen ’17 defeated classmate Katharine Holmes ’17 to win the 2017 NCAA épée title. Princeton added two more individual titles in 2018, with Kasia Nixon winning épée and Maia Chamberlain winning saber, and its most recent women’s individual NCAA title came in 2022, when Maia Weintraub ’25 won foil.
Princeton won the program’s first Ivy League title during the 1998-99 season, sharing the championship with Columbia and Yale. The Tigers repeated as Ivy League champion in 1999-00 and won their first outright league crown with a perfect 5-0 Ivy record. A decade later, Princeton again went undefeated in Ivy competition, winning the 2010 title, then repeated as undefeated Ivy champion in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2022 and 2023. Princeton added another Ivy League championship in 2024.
In 1999, the women combined with the men to win Princeton’s first IFA five-weapon championship. Princeton won its first IFA three-weapon title in 2000 and combined with the men to win the six-weapon title that same year.
Maya Lawrence ’02, Jacqueline Leahy ’06, Eliza Stone ’13, Susannah Scanlan ’14, Gracie Stone ’16 and Katharine Holmes ’17 are the program’s six four-time All-Americans. Three earned that distinction in épée, Lawrence, Scanlan and Holmes; two in saber, Eliza Stone and Gracie Stone; and one in foil, Leahy.