USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.) won a silver medal at the U.S. Women’s Epee Team’s first Junior World Cup of the season in Espoo, Finland on Saturday.

A silver medalist in the team event at the 2014 Junior World Championships, Sirico dropped two pool bouts, but rebounded in the direct elimination rounds where she would need six straight wins to advance to the finals.

After a 15-8 win against Anna Vuorinen (FIN) in the table of 128, Sirico won her table of 64 bout against Doria Jacob (FRA), 15-7.

Sirico became the only fencer from a non-European country to qualify for the table of 16 after a 15-9 win over Agnese Lucifora (ITA).

In the table of 16, Sirico defeated World No. 2 Victoria Kuzmenkova (RUS), 15-7.

Sirico only improved in the final rounds as she dominated her quarter- and semifinal opponents each by 15-5 margins with wins against Barbara Rutz (POL) and Isabella Signani (ITA).

In the finals, Sirico came back from a five-touch deficit to take a one-touch lead against Nicol Foietta, but the Italian came back to finish the bout, 15-11.

Sirico’s silver medal allowed her to climb the Junior World Rankings where she is now seeded fourth.

Sirico fenced the team competition on Sunday with Mason Speta, her 2014 Junior World teammate, as well as Madeline Antekeier (Houston, Texas) and Charlene Liu (Bridgeater, N.J.)

With Sirico fencing as anchor, Team USA defeated Egypt, 45-36, in the table of 16.

The Americans gave France one of its closest bouts of the day in the quarter-finals, but lost to the eventual gold medalists, 45-37.

After a 36-22 loss to Hungary in the next round, the Americans held on to defeat Ukraine, 27-26, in the final match for seventh place.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Espoo Individual Epee Junior World Cup
1. Nicol Foietta (ITA)
2. Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.)
3. Fanny Depanian (FRA)
3. Isabella Signani (FRA)
5. Justyna Jagielko (POL)
6. Roberta Marzani (ITA)
7. Inna Brovko (UKR)
8. Barbara Rutz (POL)

20. Mason Speta (Chicago, Ill.)
33. Madeline Antekeier (Houston, Texas)
37. Jessie Radanovich (Tollhouse, Calif.)
62. Charlene Liu (Bridgewater, N.J.)
84. Kasia Nixon (Los Angeles, Calif.)
100. Claire Dinhut (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Espoo Team Epee Junior World Cup
1. France
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. Poland
5. Russia
6. Hungary
7. USA
8. Ukraine