Philadelphia, Pa. – Competing for the first time in 2026, the Sacred Heart women's fencing team picked up a pair of wins over NJIT (14-13) and Lafayette (14-9) at the Dave Micahnik UPenn Invitational.

The two victories came in the opening two rounds for the Pioneers. In the round one win over NJIT, the victory came down to saber where Jessica Murphy secured the slim margin with a 5-4 win in her second bout. SHU opened up the morning with a 6-3 decision in foil where Ines Benadouda, Zayna Saidi and Megan DePersis all finished 2-1 in the discipline. The Pioneers pulled away in epee with a 7-2 win to take a 13-5 lead into saber. In epee it was Nadia Gaberkorn who led the way going 3-0 against the Highlanders.

Murphy kept that momentum into the second round where she took all three points available to her in saber against Lafayette. Prior to that, the Pioneers picked up six points in epee and five in foil with Benadouda going a perfect 3-3 to open up her day winning five of her six bouts. In epee, Gaberkorn, Nicole Dioh and Gace Baranosky all picked up two points for the 6-3 score in the discipline.

The Pioneers closed out the day with matches against Penn State, Penn and UC San Diego. Sacred Heart will return to action this coming Sunday, January 25, when they travel to Wellesley, Mass. for the Northeast Fencing Conference Championships with eight bouts scheduled, including against the host Wellesley College.