Nov. 21, 2009
University Park, Pa.- In the first day of competition at the 2009 Garrett Open, the Penn State women's fencing team finished on top in the foil and epee, but fell short in the saber. The tournament was held at Penn State's White Building.
In the foil competition, junior Doris Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) cruised through the semi-finals and finals to finish in first place. In the final round, Willette defeated Notre Dame's Hayley Reese in a rematch of last year's National Championship bout.
After Willette dominated against Reese 15-6, Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said, "Doris started the tournament rather slow for herself, but found her [style of] fencing and in the semifinals and finals, showed her class." Doris won first place in last year's Garrett Open as well.
In the women's epee, Senior Anastasia Ferdman (Maalot, Israel) struggled through the semifinal and final matches to come out with a hard-earned first place finish. In another National Championship rematch, Ferdman narrowly beat out Harvard's Noam Mills 15-14 in the semifinal round. After falling behind 14-13 against Temple's Kristin Howell in the final round, Ferdman took control and won 15-14 in the same comeback fashion as the round before. Coach Kaidanov was pleased with her resilient performance, saying, "Every bout she suffered, but in every bout she found a way not to just get even, but to emerge as a winner."
Penn State's men's fencer Mike El-Saleh (Houston, Texas) also commented on Willette's and Anastasia's impressive performances. "When you see Doris or Anastasia fence," he said, "the one word that comes to mind is passion. That's what sets them apart from anyone else because they go from being just a fencer to a fighter."
The saber did not prove to be as successful for the Penn State women's fencers, but they were also without two of their top competitors, senior Caitlin Thompson (Portland, Ore.), who took the semester off, and sophomore Monica Aksamit (Matawan, N.J.), who was not eligible to compete in this tournament due to debts from last season.
Despite the absence of leadership, freshman Jessica Russo (Wayne, N.J.) shined in the tournament. She was the only Penn State fencer to make it to the Top 8 in the saber. She then lost to Notre Dame's Sarah Borrmann, who was also the National Champion in the saber in 2008.
The Garrett Open will resume tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. with the men's competition in the White Building.