The Penn State fencing team will travel to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., on Sunday to face off against five separate opponents in dual meet competition.
The No. 3 Nittany and Lady Lions will try to improve their perfect 8-0 records as they face the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston College, Brown, Harvard and host Brandeis.
Captain Daniel Landgren said that in the last few competitions, the team has been working on specific goals to improve.
"In the next few weeks, it will show impact," he said.
Because this weekend's opponents aren't as strong as others the Lions will face in the weeks to come, the fencers will start many of the younger team members.
"I hope to give the younger guys a lot of action," head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said.
Though the fencers will be seeing relatively soft competition this weekend, they are not taking their opponents lightly.
"They're not any 'name' colleges, but especially in fencing, anything can happen," captain Stephanie Eim said.
The Lions will be without sabre star Alex Weber, who will be traveling to Budapest, Hungary. Before coming to Penn State, Weber was part of the German Olympic team that won a bronze medal in Sydney in 2000. To get back to the Olympics in 2004, Weber will need to compete in events such as this Budapest competition to maintain his ranking in Germany.
Weber said that in the two years leading up to the Olympics, he must be ranked as one of the top two or three sabres in Germany in order to make the Olympic team.
"Alex's presence brings confidence to the sabre team," Kaidanov said. "He is a good leader and shows excellent teamwork."
In the next few weeks, the Lions will be completing their dual meet season and moving on to other events. In early March the fencers will be competing in the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional competition. By performing well in that, the team hopes to qualify the maximum 12 fencers to compete in the NCAA championships, which is in late March.
The Penn State fencing team has a variety of agendas for this weekend's competition, but ultimately, it's looking for victories.
"This is for everybody, the starters, the younger fencers, those coming back from injury," Eim said. "But our first priority is to win."
