Amid controversy and many a heated moment on the strip, the men's and women's fencing teams found themselves on a roller coaster ride in a quad meet against Penn, Yale and Duke on Saturday.

The Lady Lions cruised, sweeping all three opponents and losing only seven bouts. Duke couldn't win a bout, Penn only won two and Yale struggled to take five.

"We just ran right over them," captain Lisa Posthumus said. "We pulled it together right before we went in to fence -- we knew what we had to do and we did it, quickly."

"We were just so together as a team," Jennifer Carcich added. "I went out and fenced the first bout (against Penn) and won, and then we steam-rolled them."

The men, however, found their opponents more difficult to conquer. They beat Duke, 18-9, and later Penn, 14-13, in a match that came down to a deciding last bout. Against Yale, though, the Lions lost their last bout to lose the match, 14-13.

In the match against Penn, the Lions held out until the last possible moment to win. As the epee and foil bouts were fenced simultaneously, Louis Kun and Stephen Gold fought on adjacent strips. Kun lost and the crowd migrated to Gold's bout.

Gold was fencing Alan Weber, one of Penn's strongest foil fencers and a nationally-ranked power. Gold defeated Weber, 5-3, snatching the victory from the Quakers' hands.

Against Yale, however, the ending wasn't so pretty. The match again came down to the final bouts, something the Lions are not accustomed to. Controversy arose when Geoff Russell was given a warning for "cor-de-cor," a violation in which the fencer collides with or jostles his opponent.

If the fencer violates the rule again, a point is subtracted from his score. Russell's bout was tied at 4-4 and went into sudden death when he again was cited for jostling his opponent. A point was subtracted and he lost the bout.

"Supposedly he did it again, but he was actually tripped" Jim Marsh said. "Coach (Kaidanov) and Wes (Glon) went nuts, but that was the call and you have to live with it."

Following Russell's bout, Kun lost the final bout 5-3, ending the agonizing loss to Yale.

"The team was kind of bummed out after coming so close," Chris Reuter said. "(But), the end result is that all the teams will probably qualify for NCAAs."

"Columbia's coming up this week and you can't think about the loss," Marsh said. "In fact, the loss will probably be incentive to beat Columbia."

The fencers continue daily practices this week to prepare for a home meet next weekend.