The Owls posted a 4-2 record in their first dual meet of the season on Saturday at the Elite Invitational, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.
Temple’s four wins came against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University.
Temple beat NJIT and Cornell 20-7 and beat Johns Hopkins 21-6. In those three matches, Temple had strong sabre performances, going 24-3 against those schools.
“It was a very competitive meet to have in the beginning of the season” coach Nikki Franke said. “This is also a great meet to help get the season in full swing going forward.”
The University of Notre Dame, which finished the 2015-16 as the third-place team at the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships, and defending champion Columbia University handed Temple its only defeats. Both losses were by one point.
The foil squad, led by junior Becca Stanford and freshman Alexa Prasher, went 32-22 on the day. Stanford went 9-3 and Prasher finished 9-4. However, they struggled against the top teams. The foil squad went 7-11 against the Fighting Irish and Lions.
“We get another shot at these teams,” coach Nikki Franke said. “These were two tough losses, but we can only get better from these results and the hard work shown at practice we are definitely going to have a strong season.”
Several freshmen performed well in the team’s second meet of the year. Sabres Malia Hee and Kerry Plunkett combined to go 24-6. The freshmen had a collective 46-18 record on the day.
“We did have a few tough losses” said Franke. “But as a whole it was great to see the competitive edge in these girls, and how our freshman fencers performed in their first collegiate meet.”
Temple’s next event is the November North American Cup in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from Friday to Sunday.
Michael Zingrone can be reached at michael.zingrone@temple.edu.
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