After four rounds of the NCAA fencing championships, the Penn State women's team finds itself in third place with 48 points.

Defending champion Notre Dame leads with 63, and Ohio State follows them with 59.

"We started out slow," Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "We have a good chance of maintaining third place. It will be tough to get to first but we'll see. We're very young."

In women's saber, freshman Sophia Hiss had nine victories to land in fifth place. Senior Heather Brosnan is behind her at ninth place, with seven victories.

Defending national champion Katarzyna Trzopek won nine bouts but her time as champion is over for now as she is currently in eighth place and only the top four advance. Case Szarwark won six and is in 15th place.

Two Penn State foil fencers are in the top 10, with Meredith Chin at seventh and Anna Donath at ninth. Chin had nine wins and Donath won eight.

All six of the Penn State fencers failed to make it to the semifinals that will take place tomorrow at the same time as rounds five through seven.

-- By Nate Heckenberger