Entering their first season in the Northeast Fencing Conference, the men's and women's fencing teams hope to establish Dartmouth as a competitive team worthy of recognition.
"We have great hopes to do well," Captain Ben Herman '96 said. "We have some experienced fencers who make the team stronger, and we have a lot of motivated people who are making others aware of the fencing program."
Fencing, which first started at Dartmouth in the 1930s, died out due to a lack of interest until the 1970s when it actually became a fully-funded varsity sport. However, the fencing trend quickly died again until three years ago when the Dartmouth club decided to finally revive it.
"I think being in the League this year will be another way the team will be able to stay cohesive," women's Captain Beth Marston '97 said. "Since there will be a set- up schedule, membership should not be as much of a problem."
The women's team, which struggled with only four members last year, was pleasantly surprised this fall when seven freshmen showed an interest in competing.
"We have a long way to go, but we're really progressing well," Marston said. "I have had to do a lot of the teaching this year because we had so many new people. We have started competing a little more and it's now just a question of improving their skills, not just learning."
In fencing, there are three categories of fighting which were designed from techniques used in historical sword battles.
First there is "foiling," which involves striking only the torso. Next there is the "sabre" which is more of a cutting action above the waist. Finally, an "epee" is a full body fight.
Each event has three fighters from each team and within each event all fighters compete against one another. A win is worth one point and a possible 27 points can be obtained in an entire game.
"I think that it's good that we'll be getting some good consistent competition, which we didn't have last year," Marston said. "You learn a lot from competition and I think that's one way this team will improve."
Last Saturday, the men's and women's teams competed in a triangular match against Boston University and the University of Massachusetts. The men, who lost in a disappointing 14-13 match against BU, came back aggressively to knock off last year's Northeast League Champions, UMass, 14-13.
"We've only been practicing since the beginning of October," Herman said. "After knocking off the defending League champions, we have high hopes for the season. We need to relearn the basics so that we can get into learning new moves. We need to work on quickness because once we're in competition things move so fast."
The women pulled off an 18-7 win against BU before falling to UMass, 19-6. Yet considering how young the Dartmouth team is, these results were very satisfactory for the Big Green.
"I'm looking more for improvement," Marston said. "We would like to get to the point where we feel competitive."
The fencing season will continue throughout the fall and take up the majority of Winter term as the Big Green look to establish themselves as a force in the Northeast League.
