After falling to Brandeis University on Jan. 31, the men’s and women’s fencing teams participated in the Eric Sollee Invitational, hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Sunday. The Violets faced several top schools, including Haverford College, Duke University, Brown University, and Boston College. The men’s team had a successful day, ending the invitational with a 5-1 record. On the other hand, the women’s team was not as successful, finishing 1-5 for the day.

The men’s team began the tournament with a dominant 21-6 victory over Haverford. They then defeated MIT by a large 18-9 margin and narrowly beat Brandeis 15-12.

However, the victory against Brandeis was not a turnaround win from the day before, where the Violets lost 11-16. Different fencers competed each day — the tournament in Waltham featured non-starters, while the invitational featured each team’s best fencers.

David Popkin, a senior foil fencer, spoke highly of the competition from Brandeis.

“Brandeis has a very well-rounded team,” Popkin said. “So we needed great performances from foil, épée and saber simultaneously in order to clinch the win, and we got them. The Eric Sollee Invitational was a more important match than the previous day’s tournament, so it was obviously a great feeling to perform well when it mattered.”

Victories also came against Brown and Boston with scores of 19-8 and 18-9 respectively. NYU’s only loss was to Duke by a slim 14-13 margin.

The Violets had success from each weapons squad. Some of the most notable performances came from freshmen Daniel Sconzo, Philip Shin, and Hans Engel and sophomores John Cramerus and Quinten Burgunder.

Sconzo and Shin, each from the foil team, went 15-2 and 14-3, respectively. Engel and Cramerus combined for a 24-9 record for the épée team, while Burgunder went 13-3 for the saber squad.

Even with such a successful day, NYU’s best performance at the Invitational in seven years, Cramerus believes the Violets have even greater potential.

“Overall we had a strong showing,” Cramerus said. “But I would actually say that it wasn’t our best day, which is just a testament to the strength of our team this year, and given that many of our starters are freshmen and sophomores, it can only grow.”

On the women’s side of the tournament, NYU fencers came up short against many of the tougher schools. The Violets lost to MIT 16-11, Brandeis 17-10, Duke 20-7, Brown 16-11, and Boston 18-9. The team’s only victory came against Haverford, with a score of 19-8.

However, freshman épée fencer Stephanie Cunningham said the Violets did not go down easily.

“There was very stiff competition,” she said. “But rather than discourage us, it motivated us to push through and prove that we are a force to be reckoned with. We may not have beaten every school but we won many important bouts and never gave up.”

NYU saw some key wins from Cunningham, freshman Marissa Posner, sophomore Cydney Williams and senior Alyssa Parkhurst. Cunningham had seven victories, while Posner, Williams and Parkhurst each had six.

The best performance came from senior foil captain Audra Fox, who ended the day with a 14-4 record.

Both NYU fencing teams will play again next week in a tri-meet on Feb. 10 at Coles Sports Center.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb. 4 print edition. Email Jonathan Schifman at [email protected]