Monday, Feb. 10, 1997

Fencers tested by Tigers

By BRIAN COSTELLO
Collegian Sports Writer

The Penn State fencing team has been cruising an easy road on its quest for a third straight national title.

"It was a pretty good victory. It was kind of a close one, and I think we can do better."

- Emmaniul Kaidanov
Lion fencing coach

The Nittany and Lady Lions had not faced a threat to their perfect records since the second match of the year and had yet to lose a weapon. But even the smoothest of roads has a few bumps. Saturday, the Nittany Lions hit their first bump of the year, Princeton.

The Nittany Lions edged the Tigers, 15-12, but lost their first weapon score of the season, in epee, 4-5. Princeton's epee team, led by Marco Acerra and Jason Burrell, proved to be too much for the Nittany Lions.

"They're one of the top squads," said Nittany Lion captain Jeff Feinblatt, who went 3-3 on the day. "I take responsibility for the loss. I wasn't fencing at the level I should have been."

Earlier in the day, the Nittany Lions easily defeated Rutgers, 23-4, improving to 13-0 on the season. The Lady Lions crushed both their opponents, beating Rutgers, 24-8, and Princeton, 25-7, to improve to 14-0.

"It was a pretty good victory," Lion coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "It was kind of a close one, and I think we can do better."

Two fencers, Carla Esteva and Gang Lu, turned in particularly stellar performances. The two freshmen have been tearing through the competition this year and are undefeated the past two weekends. Esteva went 8-0 in foil Saturday.

Lu, the No. 6 foil fencer in the country, won all six of his bouts and has a 21-bout winning streak spanning the past two weekends. Lu suffered a few setbacks against Notre Dame in the Nittany Lions' second match of the year but has been on fire since.

Lu said he had trouble adjusting to the college bouts, in which he needs only five touches to win as compared to the 15 needed in international competition.

"A five-touch bout is very hard to deal with. If you make a mistake it's hard to get back," Lu said. "In the first meet I didn't really pay attention to the five-touches. Now I know it's very serious."

The men's sabre team turned in the best performance out of all the weapons as a team. Serge Lilov, Brian Walther and Scott Howard each surrendered only one bout on the day.

The biggest bout of the day also came in sabre, in which a rematch of last year's NCAA final took place. Last year Lilov lost to Princeton's Maxim Pekarev, 15-10, in the final, but Lilov avenged that loss Saturday, defeating Pekarev, 5-1.

The Nittany Lions have had dual meets the past three weekends, including two on the road. Some of the fencers have fenced nearly 50 bouts over this time. Next weekend many of the Nittany and Lady Lions will finally get a chance to catch their breath, as some of the younger fencers will compete in the Junior Olympics in Massachusetts. The rest of the team will get a well-deserved two-day hiatus from fencing.

"That is very much in time," Kaidanov said. "We need a little break."