This past weekend several Brandeis fencers had the opportunity to go to Virginia Beach, Va. for the January edition of the North American Cup, an event hosted by USA Fencing. Six fencers represented Brandeis at the event.

The men's side sent three fencers, one for each weapon type as Julian Cardillo '14 competed on foil, Adam Mandel '15 was sent for saber and Tom Hearne '16 rounded out the men's squad on ?(c)p?(c)e. The women's side featured two foilists for the Judges, with Annette Kim '16 and Caroline Mattos '16 competing alongside foilist Vikki Nunley '14 for the Judges.

The tournament, which lasted from Thursday to Monday, saw all of the Judges except Nunley compete before the final day, and each member of the team fought to a spot in the middle of the pack.

Cardillo, Mandel and Hearne finished in 44th, 99th and 84th in their respective weapons, while Mattos and Kim finished 41st and 99th, respectively, in the Junior Women's Foil event.
The tournament featured a very difficult field throughout, so Mattos's and Cardillo's showings were particularly impressive, as Cardillo lost in the round of 32 by a final score of 15-11 and Mattos fell in the round of 64 by a score of 15-5 to the eventual Bronze medalist, Sabrina Massialas-a member of the 2013 USA Cadet Women's Foil team.

Both the men's and women's teams are back in action in the upcoming weeks.

The teams travel to Boston College next weekend in a Northeast Conference and then again the following weekend when they host the Eric Sollee Invitational at Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The women's team will also host Wellesley College tomorrow in Gosman at 7:00 p.m.