POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – At the NCAA Fencing Northeast Regional Championship hosted by Vassar College on Sunday, Hannah Tao led the No. 4 MIT women's fencing team with an 18^th-place finish in sabre. Sandra Luo powered the foil contingent by claiming 25^th place while Priscilla Leang was the top performer for the epee squad as she finished 27^th.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Epee
  • Leang placed 27^th following a first-round bye and a 2-4 record in the second round.
    • Leang defeated Junyao Lu of BC (5-4) and Hiba Hafeez of NYU (5-3), but lost to Zara Pehlivani of Harvard (5-3), Nadia Gaberkorn of Sacred Heart (5-1), Varvara Bezuglaya of Columbia (5-4), and Ketki Ketkar of Cornell (4-3).
  • Zandra Feland ranked 32^nd overall.
    • In the first round, Feland went 2-2 as she defeated Jana Elsayed Saleh of LIU (5-4) and Olivia Judicke of Tufts (5-1) but lost to Xin Yi (Grace) Xu of Wellesley (5-4) and Michelle Lee of Yale (5-3).
    • In the second round, Feland had 1-5 showing as she defeated Karen Bei of Tufts (5-4) but lost to Tierna Oxenreider of Columbia (5-0), Veronica Scherk of Vassar (5-4), Nora Weber of Cornell (5-4), Katherine Chen of NYU (2-1), and Kira Nguyen of Brown (5-2).
  • Hannah Beaver ranked 48^th in final standings.
    • Beaver was narrowly defeated by Zara Pehlivani of Harvard (5-4), Francesca Perez of LIU (5-4), Amy Mao of Brown (5-3), and Nadia Gaberkorn of Sacred Heart (5-4) in the first round.
       
• Foil
  • Luo ended the day in 25^th place.
    • Luo won three of her four bouts in the first round as she defeated Sarah Huynh of Vassar (5-0), Isabella Paulus of BC (5-2), and Eva Bassik of Brandeis (5-2) and lost to Vera Fung of Brown (4-3).
    • In the second round, she notched a 2-4 record as she outlasted Hannah Du of Brandeis (5-4) and Emma Fung of Wellesley (4-3) but lost to Alina Zhang of Yale (4-3), Layla Roy of Tufts (5-1), Brianna Lee of Cornell (5-3), and Jessica Guo of Harvard (5-0).
  • Amber Peng finished 32^nd overall, just one spot shy of tying her career-best ranking.
    • Peng went undefeated in the first round as she topped Emily Luo of NYU (5-2), Giselle Carino of Hunter (5-1), Hannah Du of Brandeis (5-0), and Nora Vaughan of Wheaton (5-4).
    • In the second round, Peng fell to Vera Fung of Brown (5-2), Zander Rhodes of Columbia (5-0), Iana Lee of Cornell (5-1), Kristina Petrova of Yale (5-2), Cameron Cho of BC (5-3), and Nora Vaughan of Wheaton (5-2).
       
• Sabre
  • Tao claimed 18^th place, which was the top finish by a Division III competitor.
    • Tao went 2-2 in the first round as she defeated Samantha Lin of Hunter (5-1) and Anahat Bawa of Tufts (5-1) but lost to Samantha Marsee of Cornell (5-4) and Rachel Buhay of BC (5-1).
    • In the second round, Tao compiled a 3-3 ledger as she defeated Chloe Szeto of Columbia (5-3), Asher Boynton of Tufts (5-3), and Rosemarie Benciu of NYU (5-3) but lost to Sophie Liu of Yale (5-3), Isabella Carvahlo of Cornell (5-0), and Soph Bililies of Brown (5-2).
    • In the third round, Tao notched a 1-5 mark. She edged out Reya Ghayalod of Cornell (5-4) but fell to Madison Duckett of Harvard (5-2), Tamar Gordon of Columbia (5-4), Vivian Wei of Vassar (5-3), Ibla Vadasz of Brown (5-4), and Samantha Marsee of Cornell (5-1).
  • Victoria Fang finished in 24^th place.
    • In the opening round, Fang won three of four bouts. Following a loss to Lilsa Hambazaza of NYU (5-3), she bounced back with victories over Alice (Zidan) Wang of Wellesley (5-3), Alexandra Tzou of Brown (5-3), and Madeline Yeh of LIU (5-3).
    • Fang produced a 2-4 ledger in the second round. She defeated Anahat Bawa of Tufts (5-1) and Lydia Johnson of BC (5-4) after falling to Angelina Yang of Columbia (5-3), Soraya Henry of Wellesley (5-1), Reya Ghayalod of Cornell (5-3), and Ibla Vadasz of Brown (5-3).
  • In her first appearance at the regional championship, Anna Hung placed 44^th.
    • Hung went 1-3 in the first round as she defeated Nandini Bains of Brandeis (5-4) but lost to Trisha Nath of Cornell (5-2), Alyssa Sun of Brown (5-4), and Olympe Jean of Tufts (5-1). 

UP NEXT:

• MIT will learn if any fencers qualified for the NCAA National Collegiate Championship on Tuesday, March 10 via ncaa.com.

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