The New York University men's fencing team hosted its annual invitational at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan on Sunday, January 22, and put up some solid performances against some of the top fencing teams in the nation.

Four teams ranked in the U.S. College Fencing Coach's poll competed at the invitational: University of Notre Dame (#4), Ohio State University (#5), St John's University (#6), and Yale University (#10).

After falling to Ohio State 20-7 in the first round, NYU rebounded to defeat Wayne State University in the second by a score of 14-13.

The Violets dropped their third and fourth-round matches to St. John's and Yale, both by identical 20-7 scores.

The Violets ended the day with a 20-7 loss to Notre Dame followed by an 18-9 loss to the University of North Carolina.

“I thought we competed very well,” commented NYU head coach Steve Mormando. “This is one of the toughest meets we have. Four out of the top-10 teams in the country were here, as well as a few others that are in the top 15.”

The Violets are now 3-10 for the season. Mormando continues to have high hopes for the rest of the season.

“Individually, I thought we did well,” Mormando added. “However, I feel like we need to work better on balancing out our results in the match. If we can do that we should be able to defeat these top programs.”

Foilists Phil Jamesson and Andrew Ark were the Violets' top performers of the day, with Ark posting an 11-5 record and Jamesson going 9-5.

The team will be back in action on Saturday, February 4, as it travels to Cambridge, MA, for the MIT Invitational.

Full Team Results