Jan. 21, 2012

Site: Philadelphia, Pa. (Hamilton Gymnasium)
Scores:
Northwestern 17, Cornell 10 (F: 4-5, E: 7-2, S: 6-3)
Northwestern 15, Penn 12 (F: 4-5, E: 7-2, S: 4-5)
Northwestern 26, Drew 1 (F: 8-1, E: 9-0, S: 9-0)
Northwestern 23, NJIT 4 (F: 8-1, E: 7-2, S: 8-1)
Temple 14, Northwestern 13 (F: 5-4, E: 3-6, S: 5-4)
Northwestern 19, North Carolina 8 (F: 9-0, E: 4-5, S: 6-3)
Record: NU (11-1)
Next NU Event: Jan. 22 -- at NYU Invitational (New York, N.Y.)

PHILADELPHIA -- No. 4 Northwestern kicked off one of its toughest weekends on the schedule by winning five of six duals at the Philadelphia Invitational on Saturday at the Hamilton Gymnasium in the city of brotherly love. The Wildcats beat Cornell, No. 9 Penn, Drew, NJIT and North Carolina, while falling by one to No. 8 Temple.

In the first dual of the day, Cornell pushed the Wildcats early as the score was tied, 9-9, two-thirds of the way through. From that point, however, Northwestern went on to win eight of the final nine bouts to claim a 17-10 victory in their first action of the day.

Next up for the 'Cats was the host school, No. 9 Penn. The Quakers led the dual, 12-11, but NU rattled off four straight victories to win the matchup, 15-12. Dayana Sarkisova (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) won a tough bout and the epée squad swept the last three bouts with their weapon as freshman Courtney Dumas (Cleveland, Ohio/Hathaway Brown) stepped up and sealed the win for Northwestern.

After cruising past NJIT and Drew by a combined score of 49-5, the Wildcats found themselves in another tough battle with another ranked team, the Temple Owls (No. 8). After surrendering an early lead, Temple tied the dual at 8-8 and eventually built an 11-8 lead. Northwestern would eventually tie the affair at 13-13. With the final point on the line, NU senior Kate Cavanaugh (Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet) came up short in an extremely competitive bout, 5-3. Despite winning foil and sabre by 5-4 scores, the 'Cats lost six of the nine epée bouts to fall to the Owls.

The final dual of the day came against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Northwestern rebounded from the narrow defeat to Temple by knocking off the Tar Heels, 19-8. The foil squad led the way with its only undefeated round of the day, winning all nine bouts.

The 'Cats will be back on the strips again tomorrow when they travel north to New York City for the NYU Invitational. The loaded field features six squads that are either ranked in the top-10 or receiving votes in this week's CollegeFencing360.com poll, including Northwestern. Fencing begins Sunday at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan at 7 a.m. CST.

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