USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Three-time Junior World Team member Audrey Abend (New York City, N.Y.) won her first Junior World Cup medal on Sunday with a silver in the women’s epee event in Bratislava.

A freshman at Princeton, Abend anchored Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2012 Junior Worlds at just 16-years-old and her second-place moved Abend up to #6 in the U.S. junior rankings.

After a single loss in pools, Abend was seeded 29^th in the direct elimination rounds where she earned a bye into the table of 128.

Abend opened with a 15-10 victory over Eniko Siklosi (HUN) and defeated Macarena Centenera (ESP), 15-7, in her second DE bout.

Abend’s 15-11 win in the table of 32 over Victoria Kuzmenkova (RUS) set up a table of 16 bout between Abend and Princeton teammate Anna Van Brummen (Houston, Texas).

As the two have fenced both with and against each other on the junior, cadet and senior levels, the bout was expectedly close with Abend taking the final touch for a 15-14 win.

In the quarter-finals, Abend controlled the bout to defeat Italian Sara De Alti, 15-7.

Abend’s teammate on the 2013 Junior World Team, Nina Van Loon (Boulder, Colo.), also advanced to the quarter-finals, but the Harvard sophomore lost to Paula Schmidl (AUT), 15-12, and finished in seventh place overall.

Abend went on to defeat Schmidl, 15-8, in the semifinals, but lost in the finals by the same margin to 2013 Junior World team medalist Alberta Santuccio (ITA).

Click here to view complete women’s results.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:

Bratislava Women’s Epee Junior World Cup
1. Alberta Santuccio (ITA)
2. Audrey Abend (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Nicol Foietta (ITA)
3. Paula Schmidl (AUT)
5. Sara De Alti (ITA)
6. Alexandra Ehler (GER)
7. Nina Van Loon (Boulder, Colo.)
8. Kamila Pytka (POL)

10. Anna Van Brummen (Houston, Texas)
14. Mason Speta (Chicago, Ill.)
47. Madeline Antekeier (Houston, Texas)
54. Kasia Nixon (Los Angeles, Calif.)
86. Safaa Ibrahim (Bronx, N.Y.)
88. Giana VIerheller (Houston, Texas)
101. Signe Ferguson (New York City, N.Y.)
127. Belinda Mo (Irvine, Calif.)
128. Jessica O’Neill-Lyublinsky (North Salem, N.Y.)
143. Jennifer Horowitz (Los Angeles, Calif.)