NIWFA – William & Mary Fencing Club

Women’s Epee

Team Women’s Epee was comprised of Sarah ‘Tarot’ Gresham ‘25, Charlotte ‘Ember’ Follenus ‘28, and Kata ‘Circe’ Kovari ‘28. The team’s last member, Rebekah ‘Opal’ Gresham, flew in half way through the tournament from Wisconsin to coach and fence with the team. Throughout the day both Circe and Ember grew into their own techniques and developed moves that were effective against opponents. Ember used aggressive feints and arm touches to get points on her opponents. Circe utilized smart parries and long flèche attacks to get her points. Tarot utilized lunges and counterattacks to get her points against opponents. Opal showed up half way through, and helped coach everyone to win even more bouts against many teams, and was substituted in for a couple bouts where she used strong parries and quick attacks to disarm her opponents. Overall women’s epee worked together to coach eachother and rack up points, also taking home many wins against different schools.

Women’s Foil

The women’s foil squad featured captain Kate ‘Lilith QOH’ Ingle ‘27, Delia ‘Nightshade’ Figlozzi ‘27, and Haley ‘Requiem’ Crispin ’28. This was Haley’s first collegiate tournament and they demonstrated grit and determination, winning three consecutive bouts after a dry spell. Newly promoted to B strip, Delia fenced well and improved her wins after a year away from foil competition. In Kate’s first NIFWA appearance, she finished 10th in the A group, one win away from individuals.

Women’s Saber

William & Mary’s Women Saber included Elizabeth “Horizon” Lawless (‘27), Abby “Indigo” Borgeson (‘28), and Isabel “The Regulator” Tusing (‘27). Bringing much energy and gusto to NIWFA, they pulled off wins against Rutgers, Hunter, The City College of New York, and Bryn Mawr. This was Indigo’s first collegiate competition, and with only 4 months of experience under her belt, she demonstrated perfect form in every bout she fenced. The Regulator, now back in the groove of collegiate competitions, secured the most wins for William & Mary Women’s Saber as C strip. The day was full of cheers and happiness, because despite not winning every bout, the team consistently scored points and put up a good fight against many varsity and club schools.

3.2.24

Women’s Foil

Lucia “Gecko” Kasper ‘24, Karino Gibson ‘24, Sarah “Medusa” Terpenning ‘27, and Delia “Nightshade” Figlozzi ‘27 each competed valiantly for women’s foil. Gecko did a bang up job using sneaky parry ripostes so extraordinarily that an opponent cried in anguish. She then proceeded to qualify for the individual event, finishing in the top 16 women’s foilists! Medusa’s decisive blade actions and fantastic footwork led her to victory in more than half her bouts at her second collegiate tournament! Karino fenced her heart out, consistently scoring against varsity fencers and winning 4 out of 7 bouts after proposing marriage to an opponent! Coming back from an injury, Nightshade fearlessly competed in her first collegiate tournament and won half of her bouts! Together the four fenced ferociously, putting their blood, sweat, and tears into their incredible defeat of 6 other teams! Go woil!

Women’s Sabre

Katie “Sparrow” Richardson , Angela “Luna” Liu, and Sophia “Barracuda” Lee on C strip learned a lot about saber as they flew, slashed and got touches. Sparrow, a mostly epee fencer, carried the A strip with her speed and quick thinking. Luna and Barracuda, grafted from the foil squad, grew in their sabre skills as they won touches against club teams. Luna, in the B strip, kept cool and used her understanding of parries in addition to sabre speed. In the C strip, Barracuda, like machine learning artificial intelligence, improved throughout the tournament, increases her amount of touches against each team. Overall, the women’s sabre had a fantastic time bonding and learning a new weapon!

Women’s Epee

NIWFA champs! Sarah “Tarot” Gresham ‘25, Rebekah “Opal” Gresham ‘25 and Anna “Lotus” Saal ‘27 emerged from the team event with a whopping 40 victories, 89% win rate, and an indicator of +108. Defeating every other school (including numerous NCAA competitors), the W&M women’s epee team were responsible for a major upset through their defeat of the fifteen other competitors. All three had powerful individual win rates and indicators, allowing Tarot, Opal, and Lotus to all advance to the individual rounds (the only school to have all three of their epee fencers advance). In the table of 16, Opal defeated Lotus and placed sixth. Tarot had a strong performance that took her into the finals and a second place medal. With an impressive medal count and a trophy, W&M wepee has proved to be a dominating force this season!