On the Penn State fencing team's nine-hour drive to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., all the street signs on the road to the NCAA championship read the same, one way -- straight to the top.

But for some unforseen reason, the fencing gods turned their chins to the favored Lions for a third straight year. As a result, the fencers let the most coveted trophy the NCAA offers slip through their fingers, dropping the Lions to an all-too-familiar second-place finish and leaving a very bitter taste in their mouths.

And while the fencing gods turned their chins on Penn State, the men's epe fencers were taking it on the chin. With captain and second-place finisher in the individual epe competition, Ben Millett, the epe team looked poised to stare down the competition and take this year's NCAA championships by the jugular.

But it was the Penn State's epe squad that got the life choked out of it. It was just too difficult for a squad that struggled all year long with concentration and focusing problems. In the end, all the squad could do was settle with mediocraty, a disappointing sixth-place finish.

As a result, the five-day NCAA Championships that saw Penn State totally dominate for four days, crowned Notre Dame as the national champions of college fencing.

After starting the day ahead by 275 points, Penn State saw its epe team drop its first match to Yale and never fully recover. The overall team, a combined men's and women's score, finished the day behind by 275 points with another year of second thoughts and could haves and should haves.

The two previous years the overall team title has eluded Penn State, last year to Columbia by a mere 25 points.