In their first year at Duke, sabers Haley Fisher and Pascual di Tella were two of the seven Blue Devil fencers who earned a trip to the 2015 NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, where Fisher finished 18th in her category and di Tella earned All-America honors thanks to his fifth-place finish.
Both sophomores started the spring gauntlet with strong showings that should lead them back to the national tournament.
Propelled by Fisher’s 25 wins, the Duke women posted an 8-3 record this weekend at the Northwestern Duals in South Bend, Ind. On the men's side, di Tella’s 20-7 ledger led the No. 9 Blue Devils to an 8-2 record. Due to renovations at Northwestern’s Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, the competition was held at Notre Dame’s Castellan Family Fencing Center, where the Blue Devils competed against highly-ranked schools including the Wildcats, Ohio State and Princeton.
The women’s squad swept Cleveland State 27-0 and beat Detroit-Mercy and Lawrence by identical 26-1 margins, but fell to No. 5 Northwestern 20-7 and No. 6 Ohio State 17-10.
Fisher and classmate Jennifer Ling combined for 46 wins with their sabers Saturday, and freshman Kristen Coury notched 22 victories in the foil category. Senior Isabella Barna was the top Blue Devil epeeist with a 16-3 record.
The men’s team blanked Wayne State 27-0 and blitzed Lawrence 25-2 and Cal Tech 24-3, but ran into trouble against top-10 competition. The Blue Devils lost against No. 7 Ohio State 16-11 and No. 8 Princeton 15-12 Friday, but picked up a 15-12 win against No. 10 Stanford. Freshman epee Bryn Hammarberg was the sixth Blue Devil to win at least 20 bouts this weekend and classmate Jake Shulman went 16-8 in the foil category. Di Tella and Peter Yang stole the spotlight with their weapon, combining for a 45-12 record.
After traveling 700 miles on their way back to Durham, the Blue Devils will get ready to host ACC foes Notre Dame and North Carolina and other schools such as Penn State, Johns Hopkins and Temple in the annual Duke Meet at Card Gym Saturday and Sunday.
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