UE fencers stretch dominance, sweep overall titles

University of the East has found itself a promising gem in rookie Willa Galvez. —UAAP MEDIA

University of the East (UE) remains the gold standard in UAAP fencing. The Red Warriors swept the event for the third straight season by ruling Season 86 on Sunday at UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.

Count the tallies: That’s 10 straight for the UE men’s team and third in a row for the women’s squad.

And that’s not even counting the high school division. UE’s boys’ squad won the overall crown for the 12th time while the girls’ team annexed a 10th crown.

Queen Dalmacio, who was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the third straight season, powered UE to its latest triumph. She ruled the sabre event and helped the foil and epee teams to victory.

“The team really had faith in itself. I had a lot of faith in my teammates; I knew they could do it,” the graduating Dalmacio said.

Collei Felipe, on the other hand, powered the men’s team.

“I’m very happy because at the start, we were telling ourselves that things would be difficult; we could lose,” Felipe said. “So we told ourselves not to waste any opportunity the Lord would give us.”

Meanwhile, the boys’ and girls’ sides, on track for the overall gold since Saturday, cemented their streak-extending runs on Sunday.

The boys’ foil team, composed of Brynt Gale, eventual MVP Louis Shoemaker, James Lim and Frances Obzunar, overwhelmed University of Santo Tomas (UST), 45-18, in a one-sided final, completing the squad’s sweep of the team events as they won epee and sabre golds the previous day.

Opao Cantantan led the charge for the girls’ team and collected two individual golds in foil and sabre in the first two days of the competition.

On Saturday, UE nipped UST in the boys’ epee finals, 30-29, and turned back Ateneo in the boys’ sabre finals, 45-20.

UE, unfortunately, failed to keep the girl’s team foil title as La Salle-Zobel scored a thrilling 45-44 win.

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UE rookie Willa Galvez came up strong to rally her team from a deficit and into a 16-15 edge but La Salle held it together in the final matchups to take the victory.