Sacred Heart
at Yale
Epee Squad Leads Men's Fencing to Dramatic Win Over Yale
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Fencing
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Sacred Heart men's fencing team travelled to New Haven for their annual battle with Yale on Saturday. The SHU epee squad dominated the Bulldogs to complete a spirited and determined comeback from a 13-9 deficit to pull out a 14-13 victory.
In the first round, foil and epee each posted two wins and Yale led 5-4 at the end of the round. Three wins from epee and a win each from saber and foil in the second round gave the Pioneers five wins in the round and tied the score at 9-9. The Elis swept the three foil bouts in the final round to pull out to a 12-9 lead. After Yale won the first bout in the saber round the score was 13-9 in the Bulldogs' favor and the Pioneers needed to win the remaining five bouts to win the match.
The comeback began when senior Chris DiPietro earned a come from behind victory from Ian Richards of Yale. This was followed by team captain Thomas Gerrity scoring a critical win over Yale's saber All-American Sean O'Cinneide. It was now left to the epee squad to come up with the three needed victories. With a combination of precision and power, senior Khristopher White defeated Jacob Rosenberg-Wohl 5-3 and Jon Jacovino mastered Dillon Lew 5-2. In the ultimate bout, graduate student and squad captain Kevin Almerini fought Yale's Paul Won to a 4-4 score. After a timeout, Almerini intiated a six line attack that resulted in his counter riposte hitting Won on the wrist for the bout and match victory.
Sacred Heart was led in the match by perfect 3-0 performances from Jacovino and White in epee and 2-1 days from Almerini and Gerrity.
"This was a great win for us", said head coach Dr. Tom Vrabel. "Yale always has a solid team and it is always tough to get a win in New Haven. Today showed how our team can bounce back and never give up. This win gives our seniors a 4-1 career record against Yale, which is quite an accomplishment. We knew that it would be critical for epee to lead the way and they responded magnificently. An 8-1 record was the best ever for a Sacred Heart weapon squad against Yale. This performance was a nice continuation of the excellent performance that epee had at the Philly Invitational last weekend (35-10). All three of our epee starters have different styles and this makes them tough for other teams to gauge. I also can't say enough about how Tom Gerrity fenced today. His leadership is that intangible that the entire team feeds off of. Chris DiPietro was also super coming off the bench to get the critical saber win that started our amazing 5 bout rally that was needed for the victory. I like where we stand as we prepare for the NFC matches next weekend".
The Pioneers are back in action on Saturday, February 7 at Dartmouth where they will be going for their sixth consecutive Northeast Fencing Conference Title. Action will begin at 10 AM.
Players Mentioned
