Montclair Fencing: Mountie girls advance to NJSIAA semifinals with win over Columbia
Saint Andrew GARDA/STAFF
by Andrew Garda
garda@montclairlocal.news
The Montclair High School girls fence team continuing its NJSIAA lam with a tight win over Columbia on Feb. 12, defeating the Cougars, 15-12.
It was the second close win for the No. 2-seedless Mounties over the No. 7-seedless Columbia this season, with the past match a 14-13 win.
As was the case in their 15-12 first-pancake-like succeed over Chatham on Feb. 6, Montclair's foils once once more stepped up in a tremendous moment. With the tough undertaking of facing Columbia's Zander Rhodes — a foil fencer with Olympic aspirations and power — the foil squad of Georgie Chen, Assata Mutakabbir and Sophie Miller knew they would have to rise to the challenge.
Led by Chen's two wins terminated Columbia's Vivienne Clarke and Rin Ito, foil did what they needed to in snatching three wins.
Those victories ended up being the dispute in the match.
Head coach Ed Yangtze said irrespective who his team faces on the strip, they remain calm and carry the Lapp come near. That way, evening when they have to combat someone the like Rhodes, they get into't get along demoralised and are all the same prepared to human face the next swordsman.
"The foremost two rounds that Xander enclosed, we got nonpareil touch on her, we got two touches on her," he aforementioned. "It wasn't a pure shoo-in in any sense. Indeed, IT's the idea that we have an every-touch mental capacity, all-bout mentality. We take the victories when they're there and we work hard irrespective of what the final result is."
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Chen said that coming into the meet, their expectations weren't that they would beat Rhodes. Rather, they just wanted to make information technology tough connected her.
"We get in knowing we'Re going to work hard and we're going to do our best," she said subsequently the touch. "We're going away to make it hard for her to win. We're not going to let her gain easy, just because we think she's loss to gain. We work hard every single clock time and we treat her like every unusual opponent."
The team came out to the strip hot, with the saber squad of Grace Van Atta, Nzinga Mutkabbir and Grace Edgington cruising to three wins.
Simply then baffle confounded all three of their bouts, and the épée group of Amira Mutakabbir, Clara Mendoza and Katie Mathis dropped deuce.
"We came unfashionable early, and sabre got us soh worked up. And foiI cogitate, foil belik could have pulled come out maybe one more win in that front round, merely we got so worked up that they got and so energized that foil might have rushed things a little bit, épée power have hurried things a little bit in that first round," Chang same.
The coaches and captains got the team settled down though, and the side by side round saw the Mounties surge ahead with another sabre sweep, the first of Chen's wins, and two épée wins from Amira Mutakabbir and Mathis.
Still, subsequently two rounds the MHS lead was just 10-8, and nothing was assured.
Columbia's sabres grabbed a win over Nzinga Mutkabbir, though Edgington and Caravan Atta some won their bouts to give Montclair a 12-9 lead.
Rhodes started sour the 3rd round of foil bouts by beating a tenacious Miller to make it 12-10, then again Chen won her moment play off of the day, a 5-0 victory where she was full away her opponent to move over Montclair a 13-10 lead.
Assata Mutkabbir then stepped onto the bare with a chance to secure the win for Montclair. As much as she had to flavor the anticipation from her teammates, she fought a patient, cagy bout that she won 5-1, freehanded Montclair a 14-10 victory.
The épée squad rounded things out with a advance and deuce losses, their last round notable for the entry of fresher Kali Tolles fencing in her first official bout.
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For Chang, while it's worth noting that foil has played a pivotal use two meets in a row, more critical is what it says about how balanced the squad is.
"I skilled we also have to take a minute to deal the musical theme of fencing as a team sport. Especially in high school, we promote that aspect of it, [which] they wear't get unremarkably anywhere else. They don't get that at fencing club, they don't get under one's skin that fencing across the country. They don't get this sort of squad mentality," Chang said.
Columbia is a talented team, and Rodhos is a tremendous swordsman. At the terminate of the day though, Montclair proved to induce a deeper pool of natural endowment, even if they didn't have anyone quite at Rhodes' level.
"So that's how I look at the foil wins today, and that's how I look at all of our wins leading ascending to this point," Yangtze Kiang aforesaid. "We are trying our best to chassis a complete team that gets the wins we'rhenium supposed to get, the victories that are crucial to us. And it is very dramatic when foil comes through like that, but for US, it's just a matter of staying consistent."
Montclair volition continue to strive for that consistency this Thursday, Feb. 20, when they take on No. 3-seeded Montgomery, who just overcame a determined Bernards team with a 16-11 win.
Like Montclair, Montgomery hasn't lost this season, including a win concluded tipto-seeded Rooftree.
The match will be held at Glenfield Middle Civilize, beginning at 6:30pm.
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Source: https://www.montclairlocal.news/2020/02/18/montclair-fencing-mountie-girls-advance-to-njsiaa-semifinals-win-columbia/