NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Yale women's fencing team will be traveling to Ithaca, N.Y., to compete in NCAA Northeast Regionals hosted by Cornell on Sunday. In order to qualify, fencers must have fenced a minimum of 21 bouts and won at least a quarter of all bouts fenced. The more fencers a team qualifies and the better their standing after Regionals, the better positioned that team is to secure a bid to the NCAA Championship.
 
This year, Yale will be sending 11 fencers to Regionals. In saber, first-years Sydney Hirsch and Sophia Zhuang, and junior squad captain Lauren Kim, are ranked eighth, 18th and 19th respectively out of 45 qualifying competitors. In foil, first-year Emme Zhou is ranked fourth, junior Camille Pham is ranked 10th, senior captain Anna Zhou is ranked 12th, and senior Jenny Zhao is ranked 23rd out of 43 qualifying competitors. In epee, sophomore Shirley Wang is ranked fourth, senior squad captain Michelle Nam is ranked seventh, and sophomore Joy Ma and first-year Linda Liu are back-to-back in 13th and 14th places.
 
The Bulldogs have had a strong showing at Regionals in the past. Saberist Kim earned 10th place last year. Foilists Zhou and Pham earned fifth and eighth place respectively, and epeeists Nam and Wang finished fourth and 10th respectively. 
 
The Bulldogs are eager to qualify many fencers for the NCAA National Championships and are well positioned in the initial rankings to earn these coveted slots.The NCAA field is announced on Tuesday.
 
Competition will begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning.
 
TEAM PARTICIPANTS
18 institutions make up the Northeast Regional field:
Boston College
New York University
Brandeis University
Sacred Heart University
Brown University
St. John's University (NY)
City College of New York
Tufts University
Columbia University – Barnard College
Vassar College
Cornell University
Wellesley College
Harvard University
Yale University
Hunter College
Yeshiva University
Long Island University
Mass. Institute of Technology