DURHAM, N.C. – The Brandeis University women's fencing team closed out its dual meet season today taking on some of the top competition in the nation when they traveled to North Carolina for the 2025  Beguinet Classic at Duke. The Judges dropped five straight matches, picking up three squad wins in the process.

RESULTS

• #1 Notre Dame 16, Brandeis 11
• #19 Penn State 16, Brandeis 11
• #3 Duke 21, Brandeis 6
• NYU 14, Brandeis 13
• #9 Temple 22, Brandeis 5

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Judges opened with a 16-11 loss to Notre Dame. Junior foil Hannah Du (Winchester, Mass./Winchester) and first-year foil Eva Bassik (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) registered head-to-head wins for Brandeis. The Judges won epee, 9-0, by default, as the Fighting Irish did not have a squad.
• Against Penn State, Brandeis won, 5-4, in both epee and foil, but the Nittany Lions' 8-1 win in saber made the difference in the 16-11 match. Senior Alex McKee (Nyack, N.Y./Nyack) was 3-0 for the foil squad, while classmate Bronwyn Rothman-Hall (San Francisco, Calif./Ruth Asawa School of the Arts) and sophomore Vera Witte (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) were 2-1 for epee.
• In their third match, the Judges met host Duke, falling 22-5. Junior Kat Xikes (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) led the saber by going 3-0 in a 4-5 loss. Junior Rhea Menon (Princeton, N.J./West Windsor Plainsboro), normally a foil fencer, earned a saber win for the short-handed Judges.
• The closest match of the day came against fellow Division III opponent NYU. All four weapons were decided by a 5-4 decision, with Brandeis taking foil and the Violets winning saber and epee for the 14-13 win. Du and sophomore Livvy Oliveira (Swampscott, Mass./Swampscott) each went 2-1 in foil, while McKee picked up a vital win. Xikes and Menon repeated their records from the Duke match in saber, while junior Olivia Bennett (Shrewsbury, Mass./Worcester Acad.) earned two of the four wins for the epee squad.
• Brandeis closed out their day with a 22-5 loss at the hands of Temple and former coach Jennie Salmon. Du was the team's lone multiple winner with a 2-1 mark in foil.
• Xikes' eight saber wins led the team, while Du finished with six foil victories. Witte topped the epeeists with four wins.
• The women close their dual-meet season with a 12-25 record, 8-7 against Division III opponents.

UP NEXT

• The Brandeis men will take on Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Duke, North Carolina and NYU tomorrow at UNC's Miller Invitational.
• The women are back in action on Feb. 23 at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference championships.