USA Fencing

(Kazan, Russia) – U.S. Women’s Foil Team members Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.) and Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.) will both fence in the table of 64 on Saturday at the Senior World Championships.

Lu and Ross each advanced directly out of the pool rounds on Wednesday to qualify as the 18th and 35th seeds, respectively.

Lu gave up just one touch in her first three pool bouts as she racked up wins over Tais Rochel (BRA), 5-1, and added 5-0 shutouts over Karen Bell (DEN) and Shannon Comerford (CAN).

After a 5-2 win against Karin Miyawaki (JPN), Lu came back from a 4-3 deficit to take her fifth victory, 5-4, over two-time Senior World team medalist Corinne Matirejean (FRA).

“I had a really tough bout against Maitrejean. I fenced her in the team event last season in Tauber and I lost to her, 5-0. So I was ready this time and aware that she’s tough,” Lu said.

Lu closed out the day with a 5-2 victory over Jacqueline Budniak (AUS) to finish second in the pool rankings.

“I worked really hard in the pools today. It looked like a tough pool, on paper, but I had an easier time in some bouts than I anticipated,” Lu said. “I realized in the pools that, though you may think there are some bouts that look like they may not be so hard, it’s the Worlds and everybody here really wants this. So every bout always counts and, especially, the odder fencers are people I have trouble with, so you want to keep it tight in those bouts and also make sure you work really hard in the others.”

After making her debut with a top-64 finish at the 2013 Senior Worlds, Lu is looking to improve on her past senior results.

“My real goal is to fence as hard as I can and do as well as I can. Last year I had an alright result for my first time. I wasn’t satisfied with how I fenced in my DE and I want to have no regrets this time,” Lu said.

Ross, who finished 6-0 in the pools at the 2013 Senior Worlds, picked off her first two opponents with 5-0 scores over Giselle Vicatos (RSA) and Andrea Bimova (CZE) and followed with 5-2 victories against Margarita Sokolovskaja (AUS) and Flavia Johana Mormandi (ARG).

In her fifth bout, Alexandra Sinyta (UKR) built a 4-0 lead and, though Ross scored twice, she couldn’t make up ground and lost the bout, 5-2.

Ross took a 3-0 lead in the final bout, but Egyptian Eman Shaaban tied the score at three and took the bout, 5-4.

“It was really good in the beginning. I was making actions that I was happy with and I was moving really well and I just lost focus a little bit in the last two bouts, so I was disappointed with how I fenced those compared to the earlier bouts, but I’m glad that I get a couple days to reset and focus on having good fencing for the DEs,” said Ross who will fence on Saturday in the table of 64. “I definitely want to fence like I was earlier in the day. I feel like, if I can fence smart, a little bit aggressive, but patient, that I’ll be able to be successful against whomever I’m fencing. It’s really about keeping that focus. I’m just trying to think about focusing on each bout one at a time and hopefully I’ll have success that way.”

Lu and Ross will be joined in the table of 64 by Ross’s London Olympic teammates Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.) who were both exempt from the pools due to their top-16 world rankings.

London Olympians and 2013 Senior World medalists Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.), Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.), Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) were each exempt from the men’s preliminary rounds due to their world rankings. All four athletes will advance directly to the table of 64 on Saturday.

Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. Eastern) on Saturday for the women’s foil table of 64 and 10:10 local time (2:10 a.m. Easter) for the men’s foil event.

The table of 64 through the quarter-finals will be shown live at http://www.youtube.com/user/FIEvideo.

For complete schedule and results, visit www.fencingworldwide.com.