UC San Diego Only Now Scratching the Surface in Fencing
Packed classes indicate the word is spreading.
So maybe you weren’t aware that fencing has been an intercollegiate sport at UC San Diego since 1975, but plenty of others are.
Assistant fencing coach Darrin Wessel said men’s and women’s classes at UCSD fill up so fast, students sometimes must wait until their junior or senior years to enroll.
Luckily, team members don’t have to take a class to fence. And the way the Tritons are fencing this season, they don’t need to. At the halfway mark in the season, UCSD’s men’s and women’s foil teams both are 7-0, the men’s epee team is 6-1 and the saber team is 4-3.
All compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Fencing Conference with Stanford, Cal State Long Beach and Air Force.
Women’s fencing has been limited to foil--there are four women to a team--although epee has been added as an individual event this year. With 22-3 records, sophomore Yumi Nishiyama and senior Moriah McCauley lead the six-strong women’s team.
The men’s teams in the sport have three members. Leading the 15 Tritons are junior Chris Moody (19-2 in epee), senior Aaron Shebest (19-2 in foil), senior Jeff Schiffman (13-8 in saber) and junior Tom Powell (13-8 in foil).
Coach Alison Reid, formerly a world-ranked modern pentathlete and a Stanford graduate, and Wessel, the last UCSD fencer to qualify for NCAA nationals (1990), are in their third year with the Triton fencing team.
No UCSD team has ever qualified for nationals, and despite the Tritons’ current success, neither coach predicted this is the season that would change. Fencing’s selection process can be as subjective as ice skating’s or gymnastics’.
“A lot of it’s political,” said Wessel. “It’s based on your overall results against NCAA schools and the strength of that school.”
But Reid didn’t discount the chances of some individuals qualifying for nationals. Moody and Shebest are the men’s best bets to go and Nishiyama has an “outside chance” to represent UCSD’s women’s team.
“If we have a couple go to NCAAs, I’ll be happy,” Reid said. “So much of it is out of their control. A lot of it depends on who you’re fencing and if you’re fencing really well.”
Before they came to UCSD, only three of the team’s 21 fencers had previous experience. Powell and Shebest fenced in the San Bernardino area, and Nishiyama fenced in Santa Monica. But some junior and high school programs have begun to crop up in San Diego as well.
“It used to be they all started in college,” said Wessel, who played golf and ran before college. “But in the past four or five years, there’s been an increase in junior programs.”
Most UCSD fencers have little or no athletic background, and Wessel and Reid had to start their program from scratch. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I wanted to go to a program where they had little experience,” Reid said. “The first six month of training define your bad habits later. I wanted them to develop sound techniques so they wouldn’t have (bad habits) later.”
Heads Held High: Point Loma Nazarene’s women’s volleyball team was ousted from the quarterfinals of the NAIA nationals Friday night at Golden Gym, but the loss didn’t dishearten the Crusaders too much.
In PLNC’s second longest match of the season--a 2 1/2-hour marathon that ended after midnight--the Crusaders fell to Henderson State, Ark., 18-16, 15-8, 13-15, 9-15, 15-8.
“It didn’t take away a thing. They played great,” said PLNC Coach Barb Wnek.
PLNC (24-9) finished the season with more victories than any previous team. But it was the Crusaders’ performance in their first national appearance that had spectators talking.
En route to its 4-0 pool play record, PLNC dispatched second-seeded Hawaii-Hilo and seventh-seeded Montevallo, Ala.
PLNC handled Hawaii-Hilo, 15-1, 15-2. It was the first time the Vulcans had been swept all season. Said St. Francis, Ill., Coach Rich Luenemann: “It was the most dominating performance of a good team beating another good team.”
Wnek, who wasn’t so pleased with her team’s performance in the District 3 tournament, couldn’t have asked for a better showing.
“They have left (the season) on a high,” she said. “They really came together. They played practically flawless volleyball. They couldn’t have ended it any better.”
During pool play, the Crusaders could do no wrong. Every serve, pass and spike went PLNC’s way.
“It was almost like they couldn’t do anything wrong,” Wnek said. “When the ball went over the net, it was in full control. It was a rush. The girls couldn’t stop. They were just rolling.”
With only one senior, middle blocker Roberta Smith, lost to graduation, expectations for the next several seasons are high.
“I’ve already heard that some of them are excited because they have another year or two year and (nationals) is another goal to shoot for,” Wnek said.
Smith, who was named to the all-tournament second team, will be announced today as a second team NAIA All-American.
Dandy on Defense: The University of San Diego fell in the national soccer championship, 2-0, to Virginia on Sunday in Davidson, N.C., but one player came out a winner. Sweeper Roger Lindqvist was named the Final Four’s most valuable defensive player. Lindqvist, a native of Sweden, started all 24 games for the Toreros (19-5).
Rally for Kicks: In honor of the Toreros’ finish in the national soccer tournament, there will be a rally at 11:45 a.m. today at USD’s Hahn Center. The rally is open to the public.
Legacy Lives On: USD freshman Michele Brovelli is carrying on the family name quite nicely. Brovelli is the daughter of Jim Brovelli, the former Torero men’s basketball coach who is coaches at the University of San Francisco. Michele Brovelli played outside hitter on the volleyball team then quickly switched sneakers and is now playing forward/guard in basketball, where she is the team’s third leading scorer (8.3 average) behind Jill Shaver (15.3) and Chris Enger (12.3). Brovelli is averaging five rebounds a game.
More Hoops: The Toreros are off to an 0-3 start, former Vista High standout Chris Enger has 16 blocked shots. Enger, a 6-foot-4 center, is the single-game, season and career leader in blocks for both USD and the West Coast Conference.