Pressure and Positivity: How the Vipers Made Their Comeback Season

Stuyvesant’s girls’ fencing team, the Vipers, has reinvented itself this past spring to amass an impressive undefeated record this season. Internal struggles and a lack of strong leadership were the major setbacks of last season, resulting in a mediocre four wins and four losses. “Last season we had more conflicts concerning leadership,” Head Coach Joel Winston said. But with a new set of captains and new players, the Vipers were ready to approach the upcoming season with an improved mindset.

The most important change made was the emphasis on personal enjoyment during matches and practices. Senior and co-captain Allison Palisoul believes this to be the driving factor in their success. “It was a lot of pressure, but the main theme of this year was to have fun and push your limits,” Palisoul said. Despite fencing being an individual sport, the team prides itself on its members fostering a supportive environment. Practices have now become more engaging. Warm-ups before matches would alleviate stress by playing music. The entire team would cheer each other on during matches. All these aspects were to ensure the relationship between the coach, captains, and players was in sync.

This approach worked wonders for them. The Vipers would go on to dominate almost all of their PSAL matches, playing their first close game against John Jay Campus in their second match of the season. PSAL fencing meets consist of two different formats: foil and épées. Foil utilizes rectangular blades that bend upon contact and only awards points to touches to the torso (from the shoulders to the groin). The format also utilizes a right-of-way rule, which means that points will only be rewarded to the fencer who hits with proper technique. Épée, on the other hand, utilizes triangular blades and has no restrictions on the strike zone. However, in order for a point to be scored, the target area needs to be hit with a minimum amount of force. The Vipers did not run into many issues against John Jay’s épée team, but lost their foil matches by a small margin. They would go on to win their first encounter on April 2, but only by a two point difference, a victory that was too close for comfort. 

The rematch against John Jay had been postponed two times, delaying their inevitable showdown. This only benefited the Vipers, giving them more time to prepare and adjust in the rematch. As they got closer to the final set date of May 9, the team began to hone in on technical training for the foil team specifically. “During the week leading up to the match with John Jay, we didn’t even see the coach because he was working exclusively with foil,” épée fencer and junior Grace Rhee said. By honing in on the foil fencers, they could better counter John Jay’s stronger team out of the two formats. 

One month after their first encounter with John Jay, the Vipers were ready to strike. The first two foil matches did not play out well for Stuyvesant, as the Vipers lost five to two in both of them. However, junior Sophie Liu managed to singlehandedly take the lead for the Vipers by scoring eleven touches in her first match. Liu is the team’s dark horse. She is quiet and reserved, but fences to kill. Liu’s win shifted the tempo in favor of Stuyvesant, which eventually led junior Colyi Chen, who lost the first match of the set, to win her next two. Chen, one of the team’s starters on foil, is especially impressive considering this is her first year on the team, a rarity since the team tends not to accept first-year juniors or seniors. Both Chen and Liu are the team’s anchors, the players who fence multiple times per meet, so a large margin of the foil team’s success comes from them. This eleven-touch match for John Jay had given them the edge by a mere two points. 

Foil had given everything they had and made it close enough for John Jay to not rest during the épée matches. But the épée team was not willing to risk giving them even the slightest chance of winning. Every épée fencer scored five points each, the maximum number of points in each match, and had only given up one of the matches to John Jay. The result was a dominant 45-27 score, capping off the season with a satisfying conclusion against their biggest rivals and solidifying their undefeated streak.

However, even with the positive changes made by the team this past season, there is still work to be done. Coach Winston believes that the sport will only grow larger and more competitive as it becomes more accessible to other boroughs, where only a couple of schools previously offered fencing. The Vipers cannot afford to lose their momentum gained in this comeback season. Judging by the entire team’s positive mindset and constant drive for improvement, there is nowhere to go but up.