FIRST MATCH: The Cornell women's fencing team begins its 2009-10 season on Halloween weekend at the Temple Collegiate Open, held at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. In its 30th year of existence, the Open is one of the largest competitions that Cornell will participate in this season.

AT THE HELM: Coach Iryna Dolgikh returns for a fifth season as the head coach of an ever-improving Big Red fencing program. Dolgikh, the 1976 World Champion for women's foil and a gold medalist at the 1977 World Cup, helped to lead Penn State to a pair of national runner-up finishes as an assistant coach before arriving at Cornell. Since that time, the team has continued to improve under Dolgikh's reign. Last year, the Big Red finished the season ranked eighth at the IFA championships. The team also won the Cornell Invitational, placed sixth in the Ivy League and had an 11th place finish at the NCAA championships. This fall, Dolgikh traveled to Moscow, Russia, to serve as a coach of the U.S. National Veteran's Fencing Team, and helped lead the squad to 10 medals at the 2009 World Veteran Championships.

 

 

SABER: With the graduation of Alex Heiss '09, the saber squad will start out the season with a very talented but inexperienced lineup. Although Heiss was a keystone of the saber program, finishing as high as 13^th at the NCAA championships in 2007, Cornell will be led by a pair of highly-recruited freshmen that should make an immediate impact.

 

Freshmen Audrey Speer and Beverly Yang are both front runners to earn a spot in the Cornell starting lineup. Speer already has experience fencing with the best in the country, finishing in third place at the 2008 USFA North America Cup – E Division II. Yang joins the Big Red after leading her high school saber squad to a state championship last year.

 

Also watch out for junior Katie Halpin in 2009. Halpin returns as the most experienced saber fencer and among the hardest working members of the team. She leads all returning saber with seven victories last season.

 

Sophomore Lila Lavrov will also get some valuable time after getting experience last year against Brandeis and MIT, while freshmen Anna Bardakh and Christie Ellinger also strengthen the depth at saber for the Big Red.

 

FOIL: Cornell foil has seen its greatest improvement in the last year, and it should build upon a successful season that saw the squad win 76% of its matches, including defeating all five teams faced at the Princeton Invitational last year.

 

Sophomore Rebecca Hirschfeld was one of the best rookies in the nation last year, winning 61% of her matches. She led all Cornell foil at the Ivy League Championships with a 7-10 record. The highlight of her season, however, came at the 2009 IFA championships where she earned a bronze medal. This fall, she received Cornell's Jeff Stenstrom Memorial Award, which is given to the student-athlete who best exemplifies leadership qualities through dedication and strength of character during his or her freshman year.

 

Hirschfeld will be joined by a pair of returning letter winners in senior Dana Baines and junior Analise Peleggi. Baines was among the most improved fencers on the team, finishing with the best winning percentages among all foil at 66% to lead the squad in winning percentage for the third year in a row.

 

Peleggi is an extremely hard worker who finished last season with an 8-10 record and placed 10th overall in pool-C at the 2009 IFA Championships.

 

Freshmen Lucia Rafanalli could also see a lot of time at foil. The rookie finished in 55^th place at the 2009 summer nationals and won the 2008 Southern California Scholastic League Novice tournament before arriving at Cornell.

 

Rounding out the foils will be sophomore Quintana O'Neil and freshman McKellen Rattray. O'Neil won the lone bout she competed in last year, while Rattray fenced for five years at Marymount School.

 

EPEE: Cornell's epee squad is the most experienced of the weapons at Cornell with three senior starters – Tasha Hall, Katherine Thompson, and Sallie Dietrich – returning from a 2008-09 squad that won 70% of its matches, including impressive victories over Brown, Yale, and Penn at last season's Ivy League Championship.

 

After missing the first half of the season last year, Hall came back strong towards the end of the year and advanced to her second straight NCAA Championship. She also had an outstanding showing at the Ivy League championships, finishing with a mark of 11-7.

 

Thompson, a team captain, had the best winning percentage on the Cornell roster, winning over 80% of her bouts. She posted the most wins on the team with a 41-10 record and also went 10-5 at the Ivy League championships, garnering second-team All-Ivy honors in the process.

 

Dietrich, who missed the fall season to study abroad, provided excellent leadership in the spring season and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the second time in her career.

 

Freshmen Christie Robinson and Addy McDonnell will provide excellent competition to the veterans and both could break into the lineup by the end of the year. Robinson was named first-team all-state in 2009 after leading her epee squad to a state championship. McDonnell was a member of the Cadet Canadian National team where she represented Canada at both the Junior and Senior World Cups in 2008 and 2009.

 

Junior Christine Wilkinson and freshman Maria Napolitano will add depth at epee. Wilkinson started many matches for the Big Red last year, finishing with a winning record of 12-11, while Napolitano won the 2009 Connecticut State Championship in the epee.

UP NEXT: The Big Red returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 15, as it travels to the Vassar invitational in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.