Three competitions down, one to go. After the men's foil and sabre, and women's foil competitions, the overall team title that has been eluding the Penn State fencing team is still not decided.

The should've-been title that got away the last two years is in reach again. The title that has haunted the fencers of last two years' teams will finally be decided today when the men's epe competition takes place.

The men's sabre squad fought to a second-place finish yesterday just behind Yale in the team competition, pushing the overall team margin between Penn State and Notre Dame to 275. As a result, the epe squad will have to put the finishing touches on the tournament.

"I'm pretty confident we'll do well," said epe captain Ben Millett. "I think the epe squad is confident. There's a lot of pressure on us, but (Notre Dame) is feeling pressure, too."

Whoever can control the pressure today might just turn out to be the epe squad champion, but the important crown is the overall team title.

Having been known to lose its cool in pressure situations, the other three squads have proven the critics wrong. Now it's the epe team's turn.

"They can't look at the numbers, who's winning and who's losing" sabre captain Tom Strzalkowski said of his teammates. "They have to concentrate on the matches individually. They have to focus."

Strzalkowski's squad focused nicely yesterday after losing its first three matches, but the sabre squad showed heart and fought back only to lose the deciding match on two controversial calls.

"I'm disappointed," said Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov of the calls. "It's a difficult job. It's life."

But sometimes life is unkind --just ask Olga Chernyak who lost to teammate Olga Kalinovskaya in the women's individual foil event yesterday. For the second straight year after winning the women's foil championship in 1992, Chernyak fell to her younger teammate.

"I fenced fine," said a quiet Chernyak afterward. "It came down to me and Olga and she won."

All Kalinovskaya said later was in praise for Chernyak.

"I had some problems, but I got through," said the two-time NCAA champion. "(Chernyak's) like the strongest fencer here. It came down to one bout."