University Park, Pa.; March 21, 2009- After a tough first day of the women's competition Penn State remains at the top in team standings. There were some tough losses, but Penn State has a total of 156 victories on the weekend. The women combined had a total of 58 today. Tomorrow's final rounds will decide who the National Collegiate Champions with be in the individual team standings and in the individual weapons.
Monika Aksamit (Matawan, N.J.) finished fifth in the sabre division with 11 total victories and only lost three on the day. One of her wins came against the current fencer in first place, Duke's Rebecca Ward. It was a close bout that Aksamit won 5-4. One of the losses that Aksamit received was to her own teammate, Caitlin Thompson (Portland, Ore.) who is currently ranked 12th. She has a total of seven victories and beat the current third place holder Harvard's Caroline Vloka 5-2.
In foil, after some tough calls Allison Glasser (Piedmont, Calif.) and Doris Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) had to settle for eighth place and sixth place. Glasser, currently in eighth, had nine total victories on the day and had six losses. Willette, who is currently in sixth, had 11 victories and lost only four. One of her wins was to current fourth place holder Columbia's Nicole Ross.
After being in first for most of the day in epee, Anastasia Ferdman (Maalot, Israel) ends this opening day of rounds third behind Notre Dame's Courtney Hurley (first) and Harvard's Noam Mills (second). She has yet to fence Hurley, but beat Mills 4-3. She had 12 victories for the day and only lost two. Nina Westman (Kalmar, Sweden) ended the day with eight total wins and six losses. She is sitting in 11th place and will need to step up tomorrow if she wants to be in the National title hunt.
The final day of women's competition will begin tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. with women's foil and women's sabre and epee will follow. The Championship bouts will take place at 2 p.m.