CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Notre Dame won six of the eight Atlantic Coast Conference Fencing Awards for the 2024-25 season, which were announced Thursday following a vote of the league’s five head coaches. The Fighting Irish won the 2025 NCAA Fencing Championship, while three Fighting Irish fencers captured individual national championships.
Four of the six individuals who won a 2025 ACC Fencer of the Year Award also claimed a national championship, with Notre Dame’s Eszter Muhari (epee) and Magda Skarbonkiewicz (sabre) and Stanford’s Arianna Cao (foil) on the women’s side and the Fighting Irish’s Chase Emmer (foil) in the men’s competition. North Carolina’s Eli Lippman earned ACC Fencer of the Year in men’s epee, while Notre Dame’s Radu Nitu claimed the award in men’s sabre.
Notre Dame head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia earned ACC Coach of the Year honors for both men’s and women’s fencing.
Muhari was named ACC Fencer of the Year in women’s epee for the second time (2023). She won her second NCAA women’s epee championship as well as the ACC crown and was voted the 2025 ACC Women’s Championship MVP. A native of Budapest, Hungary, Muhari went 23-1 in the regular season and then was undefeated at 23-0 in the round-robin portion of the NCAA Championships.
Cao earned ACC Fencer of the Year honors in women’s foil after winning the NCAA championship in the event, becoming Stanford’s first NCAA champion since 2015 and the 15th in program history. The native of San Jose, California, posted a 45-12 mark in intercollegiate competition this season. She also was 10-2 in the ACC Championship dual meets.
Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Skarbonkiewicz claimed the national championship in women’s sabre as just a freshman. This came a few weeks after she won the ACC Championship in sabre as well. Skarbonkiewicz went 30-4 in the regular season and was 21-1 in the round-robin portion of the NCAA Championships.
Lippman won the 2025 ACC title in men’s epee and was named the 2025 ACC Men’s Championship MVP. It marked the second career ACC championship for the native of Vancouver, British Columbia, who also won the 2022 epee crown. He posted a 35-23 record during the season and was 8-1 during the individual portion of the ACC Championships.
A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Emmer captured his first NCAA championship in men’s foil in 2025. He posted a 27-9 record in the regular season and was 7-3 in the round-robin portion of the individual competition at the ACC Championships. He was 17-6 in the round robin at NCAAs, earning the No. 2 seed before ousting top-seeded Andrew Chen of Harvard in the championship bout.
Nitu earned a silver medal at the NCAA Championships and was the ACC champion in men’s sabre in 2025. The native of Bucharest, Romania, was 24-15 in the regular season. He went 16-6 in the round-robin preliminaries at the NCAA Championships, where he then earned the No. 3 seed and advanced to the championship match.
Kvaratskhelia was voted ACC Women’s Coach of the Year for the eighth time and ACC Men’s Coach of the Year for the seventh time after guiding Notre Dame to its sixth national championship during his tenure (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025). In addition to winning the national title, the Fighting Irish captured both ACC championships this season, earning their ninth women’s title in the last 11 years and their eighth men’s crown in 11 seasons.
2025 ACC Fencers of the Year
Men’s Epee: Eli Lippman, Sr., North Carolina
Men’s Foil: Chase Emmer, So., Notre Dame
Men’s Sabre: Radu Nitu, So., Notre Dame
Women’s Epee: Eszter Muhari, Jr., Notre Dame
Women’s Foil: Arianna Cao, So., Stanford
Women’s Sabre: Magda Skarbonkiewicz, Fr., Notre Dame
2025 Men’s Coach of the Year Gia Kvaratskhelia, Notre Dame
2025 Women’s Coach of the Year: Gia Kvaratskhelia, Notre Dame