Complete Women's Results from Saturday, January 6

Complete Men's Results from Sunday, January 7

The University of Detroit Mercy women's fencing squad overcame their lack of an epee squad to post three wins and one tie on Saturday, and the men's team continued to show improvement against impressive competition on Sunday, as the Titans competed at the Notre Dame Duals on Saturday and Sunday, January 6-7.

“On both (men's and women's) sides, our sabre and foil squads have been doing what they're supposed to and winning the matches they're supposed to,” said Titans head coach Todd Dressell. “But we don't have an epee squad for the women and we've pretty much built a men's epee squad from scratch, and they're all newcomers, but even they've been making a lot of improvement and are doing at least as much, if not more, than I expect them to.”

The women's team got off to a good start Saturday winning 13 out of 14 matches fenced against the University of Wisconsin to earn a 13-13 tie. The sabre squad of senior Ashlee McLemore (Detroit, MI/Dominican), sophomore Samantha LaFrance (Macomb, MI/Dakota) and freshman Olivia Furnas (Macomb, MI/Dakota) powered its way to an 8-1 win against Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the shorthanded foil team of senior Ashley Colbert (Washington, MI/Romeo) and sophomore Brittany Cook (Burton, MI/Owosso) scored a 5-3 victory against the Badgers.

As a team, the women scored victories over the University of Illinois (12-6), Cleveland State (15-4) and Lawrence University (11-9). McLemore, LaFrance and Furnas led the charge all day for the Titans, combining to go 47-25 and winning seven of eight matches as a squad. In the women's team's wins against Illinois and Cleveland State, the sabre squad posted 9-0 victories. The sabre squad's only loss of the day came in their final match against a Notre Dame team ranked No. 2 nationally.

The women's foil squad went 4-4 on the day, topping Wisconsin, the University of Chicago, Cleveland State and Lawrence. Against Cleveland State and Lawrence, Colbert and Cook won all six bouts fenced, and won five of six bouts against Wisconsin and Chicago.

“I was really happy with the way our beginners fenced,” remarked Dressell. “Olivia (Furnas) and Samantha (LaFrance) still have some work to do, but they continue to show progress. And our veterans are getting the job done as well. Ashlee (McLemore) has some hiccups occasionally, but she doesn't let it carry over into her next match.”

On the men's side of the action Sunday, the Titans dropped a slew of one-point matches but were unable to score a victory, finishing on the short end of 14-13 decisions against Wisconsin, Chicago, Cleveland State, Indiana and Lawrence. The men also faltered against Illinois by a score of 15-12.

The difference in many of the losses was a short-handed epee squad. A pair of newcomers, junior Tim Nelson (Riverview, MI/Gabriel Richard) and freshman Martin Tomaj (Farmington Hills, MI/Farmington), took their lumps against a very heavy field, but combined to win 11 matches on the day.

“For being brand new to the sport, Tim (Nelson) is doing better than I ever expected,” Dressell said. “He's winning bouts that, on paper at least, he shouldn't be winning against some very good fencers.”

The men's foil squad of junior Brad Coon (Jenison, MI/Hudsonville), sophomore Michael Purdy-Sachs (Port Huron, MI/Home School) and freshman Jared Sivec (Macomb, MI/Dakota) won three matches on the day, topping Chicago by a score of 6-3, Lawrence 5-4, and romping to an 8-1 win over Wisconsin, and combined to win 35 bouts against what Dressell believes was the best field at Notre Dame. Four of the matches the foil squad dropped were by one point.

In the men's sabre competition the Titans won their first six matches of the day, getting the best of Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland State, Indiana, Lawrence and Wisconsin. Senior Doug Sollman (Sterling Hts., MI/Stevenson), senior Dan Bingham (St. Clair Shores, MI/Fraser) and junior Tom Lorenzo (Avon, OH/St. Ignatius) combined to win 42 bouts on the day.

“The big thing is that we continue to make improvement every week,” said Dressell. “(Michael) Purdy-Sachs has been lighting it up, fencing very well against very, very strong competition. And (Brad) Coon had a rough weekend last weekend at Northwestern but put that behind him and did much better at Notre Dame.

“We get a couple weeks off here before heading to (Midwest Fencing) Conference Championships, and we have a lot of work to do. We'll do a lot of fencing as opposed to just doing drill and exercises, and we'll try to put everyone in more pressure situations. But I'm confident we'll continue to get better here and I think we're definitely on the right track.”

The Titans will be in action again as a team when they travel back to South Bend, IN on Saturday and Sunday, March 6-7 for the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships where they'll see much of the same competitions they've faced at Northwestern and Notre Dame.