Two New York University fencers are competing at the NCAA Championships, hosted by Penn State University in University Park, PA, Thursday-Sunday, March 20-23.

Men's fencing wrapped up Friday, with NYU foil fencer Anup Banerjee winning 6 bouts and finishing in 22 of 24 in his weapon.

Today marks the beginning of the women's half of the tournament.

Maria Stamos comes into the tournament as the sole Violets' representative in the women's competition. 

Stamos started the day off strong with four victories across seven bouts in the opening round for women's foil. Her victories came against Renata Chusid of Cornell University, Chin-Yi Kong of Princeton University, Anna Novoseltseva of Temple University, and Katina Prestakis Ortiz of the University of Pennsylvania. 

For the second round, Stamos went 3-1, taking victories over Jessie Chen from Brown University along with Jessica Guo and Lauren Scruggs from Harvard. In the day's final round, she fenced four times, securing a victory over Charlotte Koenig of Duke University. 

At the end of her first day of fencing, Stamos holds an 8-7 record and is currently 12th among 24 fencers in women's foil.

"Maria opened the competition with an impressive performance, holding her own against some of the event's top competitors, including several Olympians," said Head Coach Ben Bratton. "She demonstrated tremendous grit and determination throughout the day, and we're looking forward to another strong showing tomorrow."

Stamos will fence again for the tournament's final day tomorrow at 9:00am.