After all the intense yells of the saber bout and the heavy cheers from the foil, all was quiet for the final epee bouts. With the score tied at 13 in both the men's and women's epee bout, everyone in the gym focused on the deciding moment.

The men's bout went to a one-minute overtime after Notre Dame freshman Aaron Adjemian rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie Ryan Wangner 3-3 at the end of regulation. Adjemian scored just nine seconds into the extra session for a 14-13 Notre Dame victory. For the women, Kerry Walton of Notre Dame finished off Case Szarwark 5-1.

Originally scheduled as a six-team dual meet, with North Carolina, NYU, Princeton and Rutgers, the snow cancelled their trips and caused a one-on-one match-up of two of the top fencing programs in the country.

"We have our strong-sides, [Notre Dame] has theirs," Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "The decisive factor was their advantage in saber. They had so many matches in this bout that we couldn't compensate."

Dealing with the injuries of Meredith Steyer and Laura Hilstrom, the women lost 8-1 in the saber bout. The women did win the epee 7-2, and the foil 5-4.

The men won two out of three weapons, but struggled in the foil, 7-2.

"Frankly I expected that we would win many in the men's side. I knew we were very close on the women's," Kaidanov said. "In other words, I see the men's side as a bunch of lost opportunities and the women's side as a great performance of practically all offenses."

The loss makes Penn State 0-1 in the early season. Certain members of each squad will be heading to the U.S. Olympic Trials this weekend.