Jan. 16, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State fencing team hosted its final home meet of the season in front of an electric crowd in the White Building. The team faced seven opponents on the day: Penn, Yale, UNC, Columbia, Haverford, Duke and Temple (women's only).
The biggest hype was surrounding the 1 p.m. match against the defending NCAA Champions, Columbia. The Nittany Lions fans were out in full-force, packing the White Building to witness the match-up between the top-two teams in the NCAA.
The standing room-only crowd gave the Penn State men's team the push it needed to win the series against Columbia. The men's team won the contest 16-11, while the women's team fell 11-16.
Freshman Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.) handily swept Columbia 3-0 on sabre. Metryka led the team on sabre, only dropping two bouts throughout the competition, both to Penn.
Junior Teodora Kakhiani (Tbilisi, Georgia) led the women's sabre squad to a win against Columbia. Kakhiani celebrated a 3-0 sweep, despite the women's overall loss to Columbia.
Throughout the competition, the men's team also took home wins against UNC, Yale, Duke and Haverford, and the women's team tallied wins against UNC, Yale, Penn and Haverford.
The fencing team would like to thank all of the fans that attended today's competition and showed their support. Penn State returns to action next weekend at St. John's. The Nittany Lions will face St. John's, Columbia, Harvard, UND and OSU beginning at 10 a.m.
Penn State fans are encouraged to follow Penn State fencing via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pennstateFEN, on Penn State Fencing's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pennstatefencing and on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/pennstateFEN.