After a successful weekend in New York in which the men and women compiled an overall record of 15-5, Notre Dame will take part in the Northwestern Duels in Evanston, Ill., on Saturday.
Last weekend the Irish turned in strong performances in back-to-back competitions. First, Notre Dame competed in the St. John's Invitational, where the men's team went 3-2 record and the women went 5-0, dominating some of the strongest competition in the country. The next day at the NYU Invitational, the men matched their 3-2 record while the women went 4-1.
Sophomore foil Madison Zeiss competed last weekend and said the team was excited about the results, especially given the nature of early season meets.
"I was there for both meets and I think we performed extremely well," Zeiss said. "Given the low preparation time and how close the meet was after winter break, it was a very good confidence boost for the rest of the season."
Zeiss said while the team fenced well, the specific matchups helped produce the successful results.
"A lot of the team gave really strong performances," Zeiss said. "Coach [Bednarski] was matching us up with the people that we knew we would perform well against."
Zeiss said there will be opportunities this weekend to go up against some fresh competition.
"This weekend there will be a few of the same teams, but also a few new ones," Zeiss said. "All of these teams will be the teams we are competing against at the national championship level, though, and so it is critical for us this weekend."
Among the teams competing this weekend are women's No. 1 Princeton, as well as traditionally strong men's programs Ohio State and Stanford.
Zeiss said it is difficult this early in the season to determine how strong the other squads will be, but she expects the level of competition to be high.
"I don't know how strong the other teams are and how hard they have been training, but we can control our own performance, and I know we have been working hard," Zeiss said.
Zeiss said the Irish have not deviated from their regular routine since last weekend's competitions.
"We fenced well and had hard practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Thursday we took it easy in preparation for Saturday," Zeiss said.
Notre Dame will take to the mats Saturday in Evanston, Ill., for the Northwestern Duals.
Contact Brendan Bell at bbell2@nd.edu
