Northwestern fencing went a perfect 4-0 on Sunday at the Tufts Invitational, claiming victories against host Tufts, Wellesley, Brown and No. 12 Cornell to win the overall competition title. The win was
the Wildcats’ second Tufts Invitational title in program history.
The Wildcats began their series of northeastern school conquests by handily defeating Wellesley. They narrowly won the epee category 5-4, but dominated the sabre and foil categories with scores of 8-1 and 7-2, respectively, to claim a 20-7 win. NU’s next competition against Brown was a little closer, with 5-4 scores in both the epee and sabre categories, but the two narrow category victories and a 6-3 mark in foil propelled it to a 16-11 win over the Bears.
The contest against the hometown team was a rematch for Northwestern, which beat Tufts 17-10 at the Elite Invitational last November. The Wildcats performed even better in Round Two, defeating the Jumbos 19-8 in Medford.
While the sabre portion of the NU-Tufts contest was a repeat of the Elite Invite, going 5-4 in Tufts’ favor, Northwestern improved in the other two categories. The duo of Brianna Ho and Samantha Serban went a perfect 9-0 against Tufts’ Sophie Guan and Layla Roy in foil, while NU’s Emma Ning, Christina Liu and Anna Damratoski pulled through for a 6-3 win in epee.
Northwestern’s showdown came against a ranked Cornell team that was also undefeated headed into the Invite finale, so their matchup was for all the marbles. The Wildcats narrowly won this contest 14-13, falling 4-5 in epee while eking out 5-4 victories in sabre and foil. With the result, NU now has five ranked wins so far during the 2025-26 season.
The duo of Ho and Serban was responsible for much of Northwestern’s overall dominant showing in sabre, as they combined for a 14-0 record and half of the team’s 28 wins in the categories. Sabre competitor Megumi Oishi also went 6-0 in her own category, while Karen Wang led the epee fencers with five wins and just one loss.
Northwestern will next go to Happy Valley, where it will face power conference competition at the Penn State Invitational on Jan. 25.
