NEW YORK CITY – The Haverford College women's fencing team had three individuals garner All-Eastern Women's Fencing Conference (EWFC) status as the Fords placed fifth as a team during the EWFC Championships over the weekend. Sophomore Hanna Kopits (first-team foil) and junior Katie Bradley (second-team epee) both replicated their individual honors from a season ago while first-year Maia Carvalho (second-team epee) also had an impressive showing in her championship debut.
Haverford's two All-EWFC performances in epee highlighted a very strong day overall for that squad. Starting the day off with team duals, the Fords' epeeists racked up 44 victories against just 19 defeats over seven rounds of fencing. Included in those wins was a squad victory against Johns Hopkins. Bradley led those efforts with a 14-1 individual record during the team competition. She was a perfect 3-0 against Johns Hopkins to help fuel that weapon squad victory. Carvalho finished with an 11-4 mark during the team duals. She posted 2-1 marks against both weapon squad champion Vassar and rival JHU. Claire Cai finished with a 10-5 record. Her afternoon included sweeps of CCNY, Yeshiva, and Hunter. Sarah Blossom added nine wins to the squad, including 3-0 marks against Drew and Yeshiva. Blossom was seemingly in thrilling bouts all afternoon, pushing her opponents to a best four-out-of-five touches during six of her nine setbacks.
All four of the Fords' epeeists who competed on Sunday qualified for the direct elimination draw. Carvalho earned the first All-EWFC accolades of her career by advancing to the quarterfinals where she was credited with a seventh-place finish. Bradley suffered a hard-fought defeat in the first round of the direct elimination bouts, but her seed from a strong showing in the dual portion was good enough to earn her a ninth-place finish. Haverford's two All-EWFC performances in epee marked the most for the Fords' epeeists since Julie Petersen '16 and Sarah Sofia '14 were both first-team honorees during the 2013 season.
Kopits replicated her first-team All-EWFC accolades from a year ago by finishing fifth overall. Kopits started her day with a 15-6 record during the team competition. With her latest exploits, Kopits is the first foil fencer in program history to earn first-team All-EWFC honors twice during her career. She is the first fencer in any weapon since the aforementioned Petersen to earn first-team All-EWFC twice as Petersen did so during the final three years of her decorated career. Golda Glasser and co-captain Zuyi Wang also had strong days for the foilists as they finished with 12 and nine wins, respectively. All three of Haverford's foilists also advanced into the direct elimination draw. After a strong start to her day, Glasser had the unfortunate luck of being drawn against Kopits as the two Fords battled to a thrilling 15-12 final.
Haverford's sabre qualified three individuals to the direct elimination bouts and was led by Emily Brown as she posted a 12-7 overall record, including sweeps of three separate teams. Maria Yea added seven wins to the squad, while Sofia Nicolayevsky won four bouts. First-year Macy Brooks also stepped into the lineup against Vassar and helped the Fords secure the squad victory against the Brewers with a crucial key bout victory.
Women's fencing will be away from the competition strips this coming weekend before returning to action on Saturday, March 2 for the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Championships. Haverford was seventh at the 2018 NIWFA Championships as Kopits garnered second-team All-NIWFA status during that championship meet a season ago.
Full Team Results
Haverford 19, City College of New York 8
Epee: 8-1
Foil: 7-2
Sabre: 4-5
Haverford 26, Yeshiva 1
Epee: 9-0
Foil: 9-0
Sabre: 8-1
Stevens 18, Haverford 9
Epee: 5-4
Foil: 5-4
Sabre: 8-1
Vassar 18, Haverford 9
Epee: 7-2
Foil: 7-2
Sabre: 4-5
Johns Hopkins 20, Haverford 7
Epee: 4-5
Epee: 7-2
Sabre: 9-0
Drew 16, Haverford 11
Epee: 2-7
Epee: 6-3
Sabre: 8-1
Haverford 25, Hunter 2
Epee: 9-0
Foil: 9-0
Sabre: 7-2
EWFC 2018-19 DUAL MEET STANDINGS
1. Johns Hopkins (7-0)
2. Stevens (6-1)
3. Vassar (5-2)
4. Drew (4-3)
5. Haverford (3-4)
6. City College of New York (2-5)
T-7. Hunter (0-6-1)
T-7. Yeshiva (0-6-1)