PHILADELPHIA-- There's no place like home for the Temple women's fencing team which went undefeated at McGonigle Hall on Sunday. The 3-0 record marked the second undefeated showing of the dual meet season for the Owls. Their first came just a week ago at Johns Hopkins.

The Owls knocked off James Madison and Rutgers by identical 22-5 scores and defeated Farleigh Dickinson, 24-3. With the win, Temple's record improved to 16-2 on the season.

Leading the attack for the epee squad was freshman Brianna Ferrara who finished 7-0, while sophomore Rachel Eschenbach went 4-2 on the day and freshman Marla Nacey finished 3-3. Also competing for the epee squad were freshmen Nina Bell and Joanna Drews who finished 1-0 and 1-3 respectively.

"I was especially pleased to see the strong finish to the day by the epee squad," coach Brad Baker said. The squad was down 2-3 during its bout with Rutgers but came back to sweep the last four bouts and win 6-3.

Freshman foil fencer Samantha Myles posted a perfect 5-0 score. Senior Jeanne Browne and junior Maryanne Forsythe both contributed a 6-1 finish to the foil squad's 21-3 score. Rounding out the foil squad was sophomore Leigh Adel- Arnold who went 4-1. The squad was minus Junior Jenna Remmert who sustained an injury which kept her from competing this weekend.  

Junior Keri Ecker led the way for the sabre squad with a 6-0 performance. Freshman Kristine Jones was also perfect with a 4-0 record on the day. Senior Nnenna Okoro finished finished 4-1. Junior Amanda Gerwer and sophomore Kaitlyn White finished 1-1 and 1-0, respectively.

Coach Nikki Franke said she was pleased by the strong showing of each squad. "Several bouts were close and tougher than indicated by the scores," she said.

Other scores from the day included Rutgers beating James Madison (22-5) and Farleigh Dickinson (18-9).

The Owls will compete again this Wednesday, February 9th at the University of Penn against UPenn and Princeton.