Lu Earns NCAA Women's Foil National Runner-Up
3/22/2015 4:07:00 PM | Fencing
HIGHLIGHTS
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Margaret Lu of the top-ranked Columbia women's fencing team was two touches shy of a gold medal birthday present as she closed her junior season as the 2015 NCAA Women's Foil National Runner-Up.
Lu made the most of her first appearance at the national tournament as she not only helped Columbia capture its first team title in two decades, but also qualified for the Final Four and kept an individual national title alive.
In the semifinals, the foil fencer would meet the second seed Alanna Goldie of Ohio State. Lu and Goldie each posted 19-4 records in pool play, but Goldie's plus-46 scoring indicator outweighed Lu's plus-37 differential to put Lu in third. In pool action, Goldie defeated Lu, 5-4.
Lu scored the first point of the semis before Goldie rattled off six unanswered points to go ahead, 6-1. The Greenwich, Connecticut, native, would not go down without a fight, as she scored seven of the next nine touches, including five straight, to level the semifinal match at 8-all.
The score evened at 9-9, before Lu hit Goldie and took her first lead since scoring the first point, 10-9. As the first period ended, Lu went into the break ahead, 11-10.
Lu held a 13-11 lead that expanded to a 14-12 advantage before Goldie strung together three points to knot the match at 14-14. The fencer who hit next would advance to face two-time defending national champion Lee Kiefer of Notre Dame and it was the Lions' Lu that prevailed.
Lu, who prefers 15-touch bouts, faced stiff competition in the gold medal match in Kiefer, who ranks third in the world. The two U.S. teammates went touch-for-touch in the opening period with Lu holding a slim, 4-3 edge.
After trading points to begin the second stanza, Kiefer coupled back-to-back hits to take the first multiple point lead at 7-5 and maintained a 10-8 edge. Lu fought back and turned it into a one-touch bout, 10-9, as the buzzer rang to signal the end of the second.
With three minutes on the clock and down one point, Lu strung together two straight touches to lock the bout at 10-all, making it a five-touch match. When the two opponents met in pool play, Kiefer cruised past Lu, 5-1, but the same cannot be said for the final match. The score would even twice more before Lu went ahead, 13-12, for the first time since leading 4-3.
Kiefer tied the score at 13-13 with one minute remaining and quickly scored the final two points to become the 15th foil fencer in NCAA history to win three national titles and sned Lu home with silver.
