Feb. 22, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CT - The Sacred Heart men's and women's fencing teams qualified seven fencers apiece for the NCAA Championships that will be held at Vassar College on March 2nd.

Leading the way for the women are the saber fencers with Krista Bacci, Anna Hanley and Kayla Cronin all qualifying with strong records.

"Krista and Anna both had great seasons and should have high seeds in the tournament," commented head coach Dr. Tom Vrabel. "In the qualifying formula, the season records and success in the qualifying tournament are about equally weighted. Krista and Anna should be in good positions. Krista fell just one place short (9th) of qualifying last year. It would be fantastic to see the both of them make it."

Also qualifying for the ladies are epeeists Mary Dannegger, Allison Ratis, Allison Roach and foilist JoAnne Siskidis.

"The other qualifiers have a chance but will probably have to place in the top two at regionals to make the cut," said Vrabel. "Hopefully they will catch that special day and pull off great performances. They had very successful years and it would be great to see tham achieve this goal."

On the men's side, leading the way is freshmen epee sensation Sean Mcgeveren.

"Sean had a great year and should have a pretty high seed for the tournament," said Vrabel. "It would be a great end to the season for him to qualify. He has done extremely well against the top fencers this year, so his making the cut is a strong possibilty."

Also qualifying were Charles Thompson and Nate Quigley in epee, Dan Convery-Zupan, Jim Roberts and Will Puglisi in foil and team captain Matt Laudicina in saber.

"These other fencers have a longer shot at qualifying and will probably have to be in the top two or three next weekend to make it to the Championships," said Vrabel. "They have been fencing really well of late so anything can happen. We are working very hard in preparation for this event"