Penn State's fencing teams fenced for 10 straight hours Saturday, and for 10 straight hours the two squads won.

The men and women's teams convincingly turned down seven challengers each, improving their overall records to 9-0 and 10-0, respectively.

The men's team opened the day impressively, slicing apart Northwestern University, 25-2. Later, it beat Duke, 26-1.

The women's foil team took Cornell and Northwestern to school by virtue of spotless 16-0 thumpings.

"The men were strong," Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "I liked that we finally fenced as a class. A better team must be able to beat the teams it is supposed to beat, and we had confidence and did that today. There were strong teams, and despite the large victory margins, there were a lot of 5-4 bouts. It was not always easy but we won."

A potent sabre squad continued to pace the Lions' attack. Peter and David Cox, Ki Mun, Jason Krasowitz and Chris Reuter pummelled the competition 58 bouts to five in the seven meetings.

An epee team of Matt Caggiano, Jim Marsh, Joe Orvos, Geoff Russell and Jim Jackson was a little more generous with the opposition, finishing at a 48-15 mark. Brad Cellier, Stephen Flores, Stephen Gold and Mike Fischer compiled a 50-13 record for the injury-plagued foil team.

The men's victories over Northwestern, Cornell, Duke, Wisconsin, North Carolina and North Carolina State were never in question. Only Princeton offered a slight resistance before being quelled, 17-10.

"There were some momentary lapses but we fenced well," Marsh said. "Today was a mental exercise in preparing ourselves for the harder competition. This competition was good, but it's not the stiffest were going to face."

"These are the meets you have to win," Caggiano said. "The next ones you just have to do your best."

Not until the last match of the day, with only the women still fencing Fairleigh Dickinson, did things get a little tight. With the Lady Lions up 8-6 and two bouts remaining, an 8-8 deadlock would have awarded FDU the victory because of a higher amount of touches. But the drama was quickly snuffed out by two Penn State victories.

"Are we 10 and 0, or are we 10 and 0?" Katie Kowalski asked her team after the victory. Kowalski, Amy Barrett, Kris Merski, Lisa Posthumus, Janet Rossman and Suzanne Paxton tallied a 94-18 mark in the seven wins.

With the biggest meets of the season on the horizon, Coach Wes Glon is excited about the team's attitude.

"They've just fenced, they're tired, and they immediately start talking about next week's meet. It's great."

This weekend will take the Lions to Yale to fence the home school and Pennsylvania. The fencers will meet defending champs Columbia on Feb. 11.