Photo Courtesy of Michela Marchini
By Tai Owen ’24 & Emily Tarinelli ’25
Staff Writer | Sports Editor
The Mount Holyoke College Fencing club team competed at the United States Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs’ College Fencing National Championships on April 9 and 10. Hosted at Rhode Island College, the competition saw Mount Holyoke face off against 38 other colleges and universities, including fellow Seven Sisters Smith College and Bryn Mawr College.
Photo Courtesy of Anneke Craig ‘22
Mount Holyoke was represented in team pools by four foilists, three epeeists and three sabreurs.
The foil squad — which consisted of Morgan Sammut ’22, Michela Marchini ’22, Willow Gumpel-Jones ’24 and Lauren Macías Severino ’25 — placed 10th overall, beating out 22 other teams, including Smith, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the United States Naval Academy. Sammut won eight out of 10 bouts, Marchini won eight out of nine bouts and Gumpel-Jones ’24 won five out of 10 bouts.
“I was a mixture of both excited and nervous,” Severino, a sub-in on the foil team, said. “I knew that I was mainly there to learn and just experience nationals for the first time. Overall, I’m pretty proud of myself.”
Sammut and Marchini’s performances in the team pools promoted them to the individual pool round, where they placed 13th and 15th, respectively, out of around 95 competitors.
Sammut described their experience at the tournament as “overwhelming” and “exciting.”
“This competition was very important to me,” Sammut said. “Both in that we had been trying to go for so many years and in that I felt like I was at the top of my game.”
The last time Fencing competed in nationals was 2016 — before any of the current seniors began fencing at Mount Holyoke. In 2019, the team was unable to attend nationals due to lack of funding. In 2020 and 2021, the competition was canceled because of the pandemic.
“This was the last fencing competition I know I’ll be competing in, so I really wanted to do well to prove to myself just how far I’ve come,” Sammut said. “[At] my first competition I came in dead last, so finishing 13th is a huge accomplishment for me.”
For épée, Eva Volckova ’22 won six out of nine bouts, Anneke Craig ’22 won three out of nine bouts and Maya Frey ’23 won two out of 10 bouts. The épée team placed 21st overall and outperformed eight other teams, including Bryn Mawr.
“I’ve been fencing the best I ever have, which feels amazing, but that makes the fact that I won’t be fencing here next year even more painful,” Volckova said. “This competition made me feel more at peace, though, since it was the culmination of everything we talked about doing in [my] first year.”
“I was so thrilled to be going [to nationals], especially because it has been the team’s dream since my first year, and we were finally able to make it happen,” Craig said. “It was a little bittersweet because I’m a senior so it was my last competition with MHC fencing, but still, I was just so happy to be able to go.”
In sabre, Eli Gerbi ’25 claimed victory in four out of eight bouts, while Danyah Shaikh ’25 won two out of eight bouts and Qiao Se Ong ’25 won three out of seven bouts. The sabre squad finished 23rd and overpowered five other schools, including Ivy League competitor Dartmouth College.
“I wanted to be there for the team and to fence the way I knew I was capable of. As far as my individual performance, I know I had some good bouts and good touches, and that’s really all I wanted,” Gerbi said.
Photo Courtesy of Anneke Craig ‘22
“Our team performance … was solid,” Gerbi added. “[Ong] won her first competition bout at nationals and [Shaikh] had some incredible touches against fencers with much more experience.”
Adjunct Fencing Instructor and Mount Holyoke Fencing Coach Dianna McMenamin also spoke about the various highlights of the weekend.
“I saw some people making some really good touches,” McMenamin said. “Learning things and watching them in competition always gives me insights into how I can help them better.”
“Somebody reported that they had overheard somebody going, ‘Mount Holyoke has somebody in the individual? I thought they were this little, little, teeny school,’” McMenamin said. “Some of these gigantic 30,000-people institutions have their clubs there, and we've got about 2,000 people for a student body … So, making a good showing against the bigger schools is really nice.”
As a club sport, the fencing team is funded in part by the College and in part by team fundraisers.
“To fundraise, we had a table in [Blanchard Hall] where we sold mugs and keychains [with] the different blade types. Everyone [on] the team took a shift or two, and we were able to raise lots of money, which I’m very grateful for,” Severino said.
“This year, our board managed to swing emergency funding for new masks and cords, which was a huge help to us,” Gerbi said, adding that the team also received donations from parents and former coaches.
Sammut noted that fundraising was especially difficult this season because the team had expected that nationals would be held in Springfield — the same location as in years prior — rather than in Providence.
“This current crop of seniors have worked so hard to keep the club going and to do fundraising even when there weren’t any competitions because of the pandemic,” McMenamin said.
McMenamin expressed her appreciation for the team environment. “They work really hard and … some of them are really, really focused on getting better and … helping their teammates. That’s one thing that I really love, that the experienced fencers are always helping the less experienced fencers,” she said. “I’m going to miss them terribly when they’re gone because they really have done so much for the team.”
Next up for the fencers is a scrimmage that will be hosted in the gymnasium of Kendall Sports and Dance Complex on Saturday, April 23. Beginning at 10:00 a.m., Mount Holyoke will compete against fencers from Smith College and UMass Amherst. The team encourages spectators to attend.