Northwestern University Athletics
NU Seeks Redemption at Notre Dame Duals
1/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Fencing
Jan. 29, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill.--Northwestern's fifth-ranked women's fencing team (18-2) will get a chance to avenge its only losses of the season when it competes this weekend at the Notre Dame Duals in Notre Dame, Ind.
The Wildcats, who went 8-0 in last week's Midwest Duals, are looking to take down No.1 Notre Dame (10-0), the 2003 NCAA Champion, and No. 2 Ohio State (15-0), among seven other teams (NU will not face the eighth) in the two-day tournament. The former beat NU at the Northwestern Duals in mid-November, while the latter topped the 'Cats at the Ohio State Duals earlier that same month.
"We have a much tougher set of matches this weekend than we did last week," said head coach Laurie Schiller. "We will have to fence at a high level on a consistent basis all weekend to compete."
The Fighting Irish find much of their success from junior foilest Alicja Kryczalo, who has captured the NCAA title the past two years. In NU's 15-12 loss to Notre Dame, both Jessica Florendo (Forest Hills, N.Y./The Dwight School) and Julia F?ldi (Budapest, Hungary/Szent Istavan Gimnazium) beat Kryczalo by scores of 5-2 and 5-3, respectively.
Last weekend the Buckeyes picked up six wins at the NYU Duals, including a 17-10 victory over No. 4 Columbia. They are led by senior epeeist Alexandra Shklar, an All-American who took third place at the 2003 NCAA Championships.
"As always, we are looking forward to fencing these top teams," said Schiller. "I think we will fence better against Ohio State this time around.
"Against Notre Dame, we need to win those 5-4 bouts that we lost last time. These matches can easily be determined by a couple of touches."
Air Force, Duke, UC-San Diego, Cal State-Fullerton, Wayne State, Cleveland State, Detroit and Lawrence will also field teams this weekend, although the Wildcats are not scheduled to play Lawrence.
