Four Blue Devils earned the fencing team a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships to cap off the 2025 spring season. The squad was led by junior Rachel Koo, who placed 8th in women’s foil and earned a spot on the All-American second team.
Duke traveled to Madison, N.J., for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Saturday to earn one of six coveted spots. While qualifiers will be officially announced Tuesday, 10 Blue Devils finished in the top 10 of their fields and are contenders for the national qualification.
The No. 6 women’s fencing squad did just that, sweeping the visiting teams 5-0 to extend their win streak to 15. On the road in Chapel Hill, the men’s team defeated four squads, with the only loss coming against No. 3 Notre Dame.
The weekend saw dominant performances across the No. 6 women’s squad that finished the meet 9-1. The women were led by sophomore foilists Sophia Shen and Charlotte Koenig. The No. 10 men’s team fared just as well, finishing the event 6-3.
Fencing, the sport of sword fighting, is played on a 14 meter long metal strip known as a piste. A competition between two fencers is called a bout. Fencers earn points in a bout by scoring touches on their opponents that are registered by an electronic machine. An electrical impulse is transmitted to the machine when the tip of a sword makes contact with the opponent’s body.
Cool, calm and collected describe sophomore Charlotte Koenig’s performance at the Temple Open this weekend to a tee. After going undefeated in pool play and making quick work of her main draw matches, Koenig won the women’s foil in her first tournament this season.
Duke fencing entered last season with a string of question marks hanging over its head. After over a decade of top-10 finishes, the program was passed to the hands of new head coach Omar Elgeziry. In combination with a relatively younger roster, there was no guarantee that the team would be able to adjust to the coaching changes and deliver championship-caliber results so quickly.
Senior Emma Jackson outlasted her teammates in the draw, reaching the consolation round of 16 following two ranked wins Friday. Despite dropping her first main match on Wednesday to Vanderbilt’s Bridget Stammel 7-5, 6-3, the La Grange Park, Ill., native came back the next day to defeat Auburn’s Ava Hrastar in three sets.
Although the forecast was cloudy over Chewning Tennis Center, the Blue Devils started their season off on the right foot with strong results in both singles and doubles.
In its second game of the regular season, Duke football escaped with a 26-20 victory against Northwestern. The Blue Zone is here to break down the victory with three key takeaways, stats and a look ahead.
