The men's and women's fencing teams both hosted nationally ranked teams on Sunday at the Brandeis Invitational held in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. Though the teams did not walk away with winning records, they put forth impressive efforts.

The men's team secured a 2-3 record on the afternoon, picking up wins over Johns Hopkins University and the Air Force Academy while falling to No. 5 St. John's University, No. 7 Columbia University and Yale University. The women also defeated Johns Hopkins on the way to a 2-4 record. While they also defeated Yale in addition to their win over Johns Hopkins, but lost to No. 5 St. John's, No. 3 Columbia, Air Force and Cornell University.

Saberist Adam Mandel '15, who posted a 13-2 individual record on the day, noted that the team had the right mindset even though their results were less than desirable.

"We went out there with the right attitude and the drive to win, but we fell short of beating Yale and St. John's like we wanted to," he said. "We ended up coming close to beating both, but in the end came down to a few 5-4 losses."

Although the men's team fell to their two ranked opponents-12-15 to St. John's and 7-20 to Columbia-the Judges managed a close contest before falling to Yale 10-17. They then managed to gain some momentum in their 15-12 defeat over Air Force and 18-9 triumph over Johns Hopkins in the first two bouts.

In the win over Hopkins, both Mandel and foilist Julian Cardillo '14 led the way for the Judges with respective 3-0 victories over their Blue Jays opponents.

The saberists managed to secure three wins in their five events on the day, followed closely by the ?(c)p?(c)eists and foilists, who both respectively secured two victories on the day.

Foilist Noah Berman '15 had a strong day for the Judges, taking seven victories on the afternoon, while ?(c)p?(c)eist Tom Hearne '16 matched Berman's win count with seven of his own.

Mandel credited the results to the strong leadership of Cardillo, the Judges' captain, who kept his teammates focused on their strengths.

"The team was both very excited and nervous about coming into this meet today," he explained.

"A lot of us were nervous about potentially not getting the results that we wanted, but our captain Julian Cardillo, did a really good job in helping us focus on fencing rather than thinking about the results."

"I think his message got through to a lot of the team and was directly reflected in our results today."

Even though the team could not defeat Yale-a match they targeted beforehand as one they wanted to win-Mandel was still impressed with the effort turned out by the Judges-including wins over teams that sit just outside the top-10 national rankings.

"I saw a lot of great wins from the Brandeis team today, like the foil squad against St. John's and the saber squad against Yale," he said. "No one gave up any easy touches and there were many amazing wins which came from it."

The women's team managed a 2-4 record on the day, posting a 16-11 victory over Johns Hopkins and a 14-13 victory over Yale. However, the Judges could not overcome St. John's (13-14), Air Force (12-15), Cornell (9-18) and Columbia (4-23).

As they did for the men, the saberists led the way for the Judges, securing an impressive 5-1 record on the day.

The team only fell to Columbia, and throughout the day, was led by Annabel Sharahy '17 who secured eight individual victories.

Foilist Caroline Mattos '16 once again led Brandeis with nine victories, matched by ?(c)p?(c)eist Sonya Glickman '16, who also took home nine wins.

In ep?(c)e, Glickman was joined by Gwendolyn Mowell '16, who managed seven victories on the day, including a perfect 3-0 record against Air Force.

Even though the teams did not preform as well as they would have liked, Mandel saw plenty of positives in the Invitational.

"I think that this team shows more promise than any of the previous years I've fenced on and I'm optimistic about what the rest of the season holds," he said.

"We are definitely a force to be reckoned with and I think the Judges will be knocking on some serious doors in years to come."

Both Brandeis teams return to the mat with the USA Fencing North American Cup on Jan. 17.
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