SO. HADLEY, Mass. – The Brandeis University fencing team took home a pair of team medals from the 2025 New England Intercollegiate Fencing Championships, with the women's foil taking home silver and the men's foil earning bronze.

The women's foil squad of first-year Eva Bassik (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany), junior Rhea Menon (Princeton, N.J./West Windsor-Plainsboro) and sophomore Ella Richards (Harvard, Mass./Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School) had the top performance of the afternoon, finishing runner-up to MIT. They went 19-2 in the preliminary round and 13-5 in the final round, with their only team losses coming against MIT and Vassar, but the Judges edged the Brewers on indicator, +35 to +19. Brandeis topped Northeastern, BU and Sacred Heart head-to-head, 3-0, and bested Dartmouth, 2-1. Menon turned one of the top individual performances in the pool, going 7-0 with a +35 indicator.

The men's foil squad was comprised of first-year Alex Fortune (Alto, Mich./Forest Hills Northern), first-year Jacob Lee (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier), sophomore Jack Sullivan (Somerville, Mass./Greater Commonwealth Virtual School) and first-year Brandon Zhao (Melrose, Mass./Mystic Valley Regional Charter School). The Judges went 16-5 in the opening pool, then went 12-6 in the finals to take third behind Sacred Heart and MIT. The Judges won four of their five head-to-head matchups, losing only SHU. They swept Vassar and Tufts and topped Brown, MIT and Northeastern, 2-1. Sullivan won 5 of 6 matches and Lee went 6 for 6 in the individual standings.

The men's saber squad of sophomore Alex Piwowar (Westford, Mass./Westford Acad.) and seniors Joy Qiu (Guangzhou City, China/Roselle Catholic (N.J.) High School) and Anthony Rabinkov (Centennial, Colo./Cherry Creek) took fourth place. They were 17-4 in the preliminary pool, then went 10-8 in the finals pool, missing out on bronze to MIT on indicator, +7 for the Engineers and -1 for the Judges. Brandeis swept Vassar and Sacred Heart head-to-head and took down Northeastern, 2-1, but lost to Brown, Tufts and MIT.

The men's epee squad finished in sixth place, while the women's epee and women's saber, fencing with limited rosters, placed ninth and 14^th, respectively.

The Brandeis women return to action next weekend at Drew University for the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association championships on Saturday in their last preparation for the NCAA Northeast Regional championships on March 9 at Tufts.
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