Sunday’s Women’s Team Competition | Sunday’s Men’s Individual Competition
Saturday's Men's Team Competition |
Saturday's Women's Individual Competition
Greensboro, N.C. (theACC.com)—Unranked North Carolina used clutch performances in the championship tiebreaker to defeat No. 1-ranked Notre Dame and claim the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Fencing Championship Sunday at Carmichael Auditorium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The loss for the top-ranked Irish women’s team marked their first loss in ACC Championship play since entering the conference for the 2014-15 season.
North Carolina sophomore Georgina Summers, from Surrey, England, was named the ACC Women’s Championship MVP. Three Duke fencers—sophomore Eoin Gronningsater of Brooklyn, New York, junior Bryn Hammarberg of Maplewood, New Jersey, and Pascual Di Tella of Vincente Lopez, Buenos Aires, Argentina—shared the Men’s MVP award.
“This is one of the finest teams I’ve coached,” said North Carolina head coach Ron Miller, who is in his 51st year as head of the Tar Heel Fencing program. “They had an up and down season, but they came through at the end and that’s what counts.
“This is the first time I’ve been involved with an overtime in fencing since the mid-1970s when we had a fence-off against NC State and we won then as well. The key today to performance was consistency. Across the board, everyone fought had and everyone contributed.
“I don’t know that it was improbable,” continued Miller. “I think it was not expected, and there’s a difference. We felt comfortable that we would come out with a minimum of third place, possibly second, and
maybe, maybe first.
“We made the first step by beating Duke. And then Duke made the second step for us by beating Notre Dame. Then it was just a matter of four bouts. That’s all we had to win, the right four. So we did.”
Miller has now led UNC to nine ACC fencing titles, eight men’s and one women’s. All of the previous eight, though, came from 1971through 1980.
After Duke defeated Notre Dame, 15-12, in the third round of women’s team play to force the fence-off, UNC then defeated Duke 2-1 in the first extra session. North Carolina’s Summers captured a 5-3 decision in epee over Duke’s Claudia Wrampelmeier. Then Jackie Litynski of UNC defeated Jennifer Ling of Duke in the sabre, 5-3.
That sent UNC into the final fence-off against the Irish, where Summers defeated Notre Dame’s Amanda Sirico, 5-2, in epee. Then Notre Dame’s Sabrina Massialas downed the Tar Heels’ Carlexa Fevry, in the foil, 5-2, to tie the match.
Litynski, a sophomore from Niskayuna, New York, then defeated two-time defending NCAA champion Francesca Russo, 5-4, on the final dramatic point of the match to give North Carolina its first ACC Fencing title since 1980 and its first ACC Fencing Women’s title ever.
The day of upsets began with North Carolina’s 14-13 win over Duke in the opening round of the women’s team championship. The decision was the Tar Heels’ first win over the Blue Devils in fencing since 2015.
Notre Dame rolled through the first two rounds of the competition, defeating Boston College 24-3 and North Carolina, 21-6, before falling behind early to a determined Duke team which led 13-8 at one point. The Irish won the next four matches to close the gap to 13-12. But Duke then finished out by winning the final two matches two upset. That then set up the fence-off and final heroics, a first for the ACC Championship.
“Right now I feel on top of the earth,” said Summers. “It feels so great. Even though I was the MVP, it was all down to teamwork. It was the atmosphere, everyone cheering everyone on. Especially the tiebreaker – that was an interesting event. No one knew what was going to happen. We thought Notre Dame as going to win or Duke was going to win and then suddenly this confusion occurred and adrenaline rose and they had to choose one fencer from each event and I was chosen to fence and compete. Normally, all eyes on me … I’m not a huge fan and the whole team knows that. But today everything changed and I used it to my advantage. It seemed to affect my performance in the complete right direction. I’m very, very, very happy.”
Earlier in the day in the men’s individual competition, Notre Dame took two of the three weapons categories, while the Irish and Duke split the six positions on the 2018 All-ACC Fencing Team.
Notre Dame’s Jonah Shainberg (Rye, New York) captured the ACC men’s sabre title, defeating Duke’s Pascual Di Tella (Vincente Lopez, Buenos Aires, Argentina), 15-14, in the finals. Jonathan Fitzgerald (East Brunswick, New Jersey) of Notre Dame took the Bronze medal, defeating North Carolina’s Matthew Garrelick (Cedar Grove, New Jersey), 15-8, in the third-place match
The win for Shainberg marked his second ACC title in the sabre, having won in 2016. He also defeated Di Tella, who had beaten him for last year’s sabre title.
Duke’s Bryn Hammarberg (Maplewood, New Jersey) captured the ACC men’s epee title, defeating Notre Dame’s Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas), 15-11 in the title match. Notre Dame’s Dylan French (Richmond, British Columbia) took third place with a 15-6 win over Duke’s Amit Sarma (Plainsboro, New Jersey).
Hammarberg won his first epee championship in besting both Simmons (2017) and French (2016), who had taken the last two ACC epee titles.
Notre Dame’s Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, Calif.) captured the ACC’s men’s foil title, defeating Duke’s Eoin Gronningsater (Brooklyn, New York), 15-11. Notre Dame’s Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Kentucky) edged Duke’s Brycen Rushing (Carrollton, Texas), 15-13, for third place.
Itkin also captured his first ACC title. Kiefer was a past foil champion in 2016.
The 2018 All-ACC Men’s Fencing team is composed of the top two finishers in each weapons category.
2018 ALL-ACC Men’s Fencing Team
Jonah Shainberg, Notre Dame (sabre)
Pascual DiTella, Duke (sabre)
Bryn Hammarberg, Duke (epee)
Ariel Simmons, Notre Dame (epee)
Nick Itkin, Notre Dame (foil)
Eoin Gronningsater, Duke (foil)
ACC Women’s Team Scores
First Round
North Carolina 14, Duke 13 (Sabre-7-2, Foil-3-6, Epee 4-5)
Notre Dame, 24, Boston College 3 (Sabre 8-1, Foil 8-1, Epee 8-1)
Second Round
Notre Dame 21, North Carolina 6 (Sabre 6-3, Foil 9-0, Epee 6-3)
Duke 22, Boston College 3 (Sabre 7-2, Foil 9-0, Epee 6-3)
Third Round
North Carolina 16, Boston College 11 (Sabre 5-4, Foil 6-3, Epee 5-4)
Duke 15, Notre Dame 12 (Sabre 6-3, Foil 5-4, Epee 4-5)
Fence-off Tiebreaker
North Carolina 2, Duke 1
North Carolina 2, Notre Dame 1
ACC Men’s Sabre
- Jonah Shainberg, Notre Dame (Gold Medal)
- Pascual Di Tella, Duke (Silver Medal)
- Jonathan Fitzgerald, Notre Dame (Bronze Medal)
- Matthew Garrelick, North Carolina
- Duncan De Caire, Duke
- Arsenii Panteleev, Notre Dame
- Agoston Walter, Duke
- Bernard Witek, North Carolina
- Connor Ritchey, North Carolina
- Soravit Kitsiriboon, Duke
ACC Men’s Epee
- Bryn Hammarberg, Duke (Gold Medal)
- Ariel Simmons, Notre Dame (Silver Medal)
- Dylan French, Notre Dame (Bronze Medal)
- Amit Sarma, Duke
- Nicholas Hanahan, Notre Dame
- Stephen Ewart, Notre Dame
- Dean Ischiropoulos, Duke
- Joseph Taylor, North Carolina
- Jacob Henkels, North Carolina
- Alex Ajnsztajn, Duke
ACC Men’s Foil
- Nick Itkin, Notre Dame (Gold Medalist)
- Eoin Gronningsater, Duke (Silver Medlaist)
- Axel Kiefer, Notre Dame (Bronze Medalist)
- Brycen Rushing, Duke
- Jonathan Schwartzman, Duke
- Hazem Khazbak, Notre Dame
- Cam Mayer, Boston College
- Justin Herman, Boston College
- Jan Maceczek, Duke
- Michael Antipas, Notre Dame
Results from Saturday’s Men’s Team and Women’s Individual Competition
ACC Men’s Team Scores
First Round
Notre Dame 20, Boston College 7 (Sabre 7-2, Foil 6-3, Epee 7-2)
Duke 19, North Carolina 8 (Sabre 5-4, Foil 8-1, Epee 6-3)
Second Round
Notre Dame 23, North Carolina 4 (Sabre 7-2, Foil 9-0, Epee 7-2)
Duke 24, Boston College 3 (Sabre 7-2, Foil 9-0, Epee 8-1)
Third Round
Duke 19, Notre Dame 8 (Sabre 4-5, Foil 7-2, Epee 8-1)
North Carolina 18, Boston College 9 (Sabre 8-1, Foil 3-6, Epee 7-2)
ACC Women’s Individual Finals
Foil
- Elyssa Kleiner, Notre Dame (Gold)
- Stefani Deschner, Notre Dame (Silver)
- Samantha Viqueira, Notre Dame (Bronze)
Sabre
- Francesca Russo, Notre Dame (Gold)
- Tara Hassett, Notre Dame (Silver)
- Reghan Ward, Notre Dame (Bronze)
Epee
- Amanda Sirico, Notre Dame (Gold)
- Georgina Summers, North Carolina (Silver)
- Justine de Grasse, North Carolina (Bronze)
2018 All-ACC Fencing Team
Elyssa Kleiner, Notre Dame
Stefani Deschner, Notre Dame
Francesca Russo, Notre Dame
Tara Hassett, Notre Dame
Amanda Sirico, Notre Dame
Georgina Summers, North Carolina
Top 10 Finishers in each weapons category
Foil
- Elyssa Kleiner, Notre Dame (Gold)
2. Stefani Deschner, Notre Dame (Silver)
3. Morgan Partridge, Notre Dame (Bronze)
4. Samantha Viqueira, Notre Dame
5. Rhiannon Harvey, Duke
6. Julia Gianneshi, Duke
8. Wei Chee Chen, North Carolina
Epee
- Amanda Sirico, Notre Dame (Gold)
- Georgina Summers, North Carolina (Silver)
- Justine de Grasse, North Carolina (Bronze)
- Claudia Wrampelmeier, Duke
- Dasha Yefremenko, Notre Dame
- Julia Barry, Notre Dame
- Camille Esnault, Duke
- Ella Morgan, Boston College
- Marie-Anne Roche, Notre Dame
- Maria Papadopoulos, Duke
Sabre
- Francesca Russo, Notre Dame (Gold)
- Tara Hassett, Notre Dame (Silver)
- Reghan Ward, Notre Dame (Bronze)
- Haley Fisher, Duke
- Claudia Kulmacz, Notre Dame
- Jennifer Ling, Duke
- Jacqueline Litynsky, North Carolina
- Lindsay Sapienza, Duke
- Gabrielle Chau, Boston College
- Clara Somfelean, North Carolina