LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego travels to Stanford to compete at the NCAA Regionals on Saturday, March 11 and then at the MPSF Conference Championships on Sunday, March 12. The Tritons will travel 24 fencers this weekend.
 
Each day of competition will begin at 9:00 am.
 
Since their last competition, four Tritons have competed on national and international stages in preparation for NCAA Regionals.
 
On the men's side, Isaac Ive, Scott Lao, and Sunny Sharma competed in epee and foil at the Junior Olympics and the Junior Pan-American Championships. Rafaella Gomes joined Lao and Sharma at the Junior Pan-American Championships to represent the Triton women in foil.
 
As the regular season ends, the USFCA end of the season coaches' poll has the Triton men ranked at No. 10 with the Triton women ranked at No. 18.
 
SCHEDULE
Saturday

9:00 am	Women's Epee Pool Starts
	Women's Foil Pool Starts
	Women's Sabre Pool Starts
1:15 pm	Men's Epee Pool Starts
	Men's Foil Pool Starts
	Men's Sabre Pool Starts

9:00 am	Women's Foil Semifinals
	Men's Epee Semifinals
	Women's Sabre Semifinals
	Men's Foil Semifinals
	Women's Epee Semifinals
	Men's Sabre Semifinals
10:20 am	Men's Epee Final
	Women's Foil Final
	Men's Foil Final
	Women's Sabre Final
	Women's Epee Final
	Men's Sabre Final
12:50 pm	Awards Ceremony
1:45 pm	Team Relay DE Semifinals
2:30 pm	Team Relay DE Final
3:10 pm	Awards Ceremony – MPSF Team Champion

 

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LAST TIME OUT
Traveling to the grueling marathon of the Northwestern Duals, the UC fencing squads posted winning records at the two-day competition after facing 14 rounds of competition against 11 schools on the women's side and nine on the men's side. The Triton women went 7-4 while the men were 7-2.
 
Derek Rong led the Tritons with a 20-1 record.
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REWIND TO 2022 NATIONALS

Shawn Kim placed third and UC San Diego finished 13th as the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships wrapped up Sunday at the University of Notre Dame. Kim's finish in Men's Sabre tied the highest-ever placing by any Triton at Nationals. He earned All-America status for his performance.

UC San Diego also equaled the team's best-ever finish at a full-field Nationals. A total of 27 teams were in contention in Indiana.

Justin Park also competed in Men's Sabre and finished in 19th position.

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Seven scholar-athletes from the UC San Diego fencing team have earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) All-Conference recognition. The MPSF announced its first-ever selections Monday. 

This is the first season that the MPSF is sponsoring the sport of fencing. Joining UC San Diego as members are Air Force, Incarnate Word, and Stanford.

2021-22 ALL-MPSF FENCING
First Team
Rafaella Gomes, Fr., Women's Foil
Shawn Kim, Jr., Men's Saber: West Region Saber Champion, MPSF Saber Champion
Vedran Markota, Jr., Men's Epee
Justin Park, Sr., Men's Saber
Sarah Shen, Jr., Women's Saber: West Region Saber Champion

Second Team
Julia Hill, Women's Saber, Sr.
Lawrence Song, So., Men's Foil

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THE WEAPONS
• Epee
Epee is the heaviest of the weapons. The target to score points is the entire body. It is the only weapon where points can be awarded to both sides if there is a double touch.
• Foil
Foil is the lightest of the three weapons and enacts a rule called right-of-way. Whoever is coming forward with the attack gets the point unless their opponent takes the right-of-way from them by parrying (deflecting/blocking) their blade. The target area for scoring points is the chest and the torso, marked by a light metallic vest called a lamé. 
• Sabre
Sabre also employs the right-of-way rule, but sabreurs and sabreuses slash instead of stab. Sabre touches happen so quickly that the referees won't even start the three-minute clock used to time the bout.

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FENCING GLOSSARY

• Advance: Take a step towards one's opponent.
• Attack: Movement or series of movements by which a fencer tries to score a point. In foil and saber, the fencer who attacks first acquires the "right-of-way." In order to execute an attack properly (i.e. one that the referee will acknowledge), the fencer's hand must be clearly extending towards their opponent's valid target in a threatening manner.
• Beat: Sharp tap on the opponent's blade to initiate an attack or provoke a reaction.
• En Garde: Position taken before fencing commences.
• Feint: A false attack intended to get a defensive reaction from the opposing fencer, thus creating the opportunity for a genuine attack ("feint-disengage attack").
• Fleche: Explosive, running attack (foil and epee only).
• Flunge: Action unique to sabre – a combination of a lunge and a fleche. Evolved recently after the FIE modified sabre rules in 1992 to prohibit running attacks.
• Lunge: Most common attacking technique, in which the fencer launches themselves at their opponent by pushing off from the back leg (which generally remains stationary).
• Parry: Defensive action in which a fencer blocks his opponent's blade.
• Point-in-Line: Action in which the fencer, who is generally out of attacking range, points their weapon at their opponent with their arm fully extended. A fencer who establishes a point in line has right-of-way, and their opponent cannot attack until they remove the blade from line by executing a beat.
• Recover: The return to the en guarde position after lunging.
• Riposte: Defender's offensive action immediately after parrying their opponent's attack.
• Second Intention: A tactic in which a fencer executes a convincing, yet false, action in hopes of drawing a true, committed reaction from their opponent.
• Stop Hit, Stop Cut (sabre only): A counter-action made at the moment of an opponent's hesitation, feint, or poorly executed attack. To be awarded the point, the fencer attempting to stop hit must clearly catch their opponent's tempo. Hence, if their Stop Hit is not "in time," the referee may award the touch to their attacker.
• Strip: Fencing area, 14 meters long by 2 meters wide.
• Touch: Score a point.

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BE SOCIAL

The UC San Diego Fencing Team can be found on Facebook, Instagram (@ucsdfencing), and Twitter (@ucsdfencing). 
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.