Contact: Jeff Sattora

CLEVELAND- When a head coach is speechless in sports it often means their team either did something great or something terrible. Fortunately for Cleveland State fencing Head Coach Andy Tulleners he was speechless for a good reason Saturday night as his men's squad went a perfect 6-0.  The perfect day continues to increase the squad's chances of having the first winning season of Tullener's tenure at CSU.

The Viking men improved to 14-2 on the year, taking down Michigan (15-12), Michigan State (18-9), Bowling Green (23-4), Case Western (21-6), Xavier (24-2) and the University of Chicago (20-7) on the day.

While Tulleners struggled to put into words what the possibilities of a winning season would mean to him, he was able to express how well he felt his athletes performed on both the men's and women's sides.

"Everyone pulled together, we had some of our lighter guys pick it up on the bottom and lock up those wins," Tulleners said on his men's group achieving their 6-0 goal to secure a winning season. "We did a really nice job."

Tom Bienvenu (sabre), Phelan Spence (foil), and Salih Yasun (epee) were all able to go a perfect 18-0, and seven men's fencers were able to pick up at least 13 wins on the day for CSU, with everyone getting at least nine wins.

One guy specifically who stood out to Tulleners was Paul Lenahan, who according to Tulleners fenced by far the best he ever has as a Viking. That strong day led him to a very strong 13-5 record.

On the women's side, despite short numbers for the team as a whole, the group was able to fence very well individually.

"The highlight was against Case, we were short (in numbers) and they were short (in numbers) and we came out with a 12-12 tie," Tulleners said. "We had no losses to do that, all the girls were fencing very well."

They fenced very well all day long as Christine Bocci led the way for CSU on the women's side with 13 wins, while Maureen Forinash (10 wins), Sudeshna Chakraborty (9 wins), and Amanda Brown(8 wins) all had strong showings for the Vikings.

Overall Tulleners couldn't have been happier with how the results turned out, and the day in general.

"I think the atmosphere and how the team interacted was the best I've seen this season, the best support, the best interaction," Tulleners said. "I think it really made the difference."

He also added how strong the parent support was, noting that the atmosphere and encouragement really put his group over the top.

The Vikings are now off from competition until February 2nd when they head to Evanston, Illinois.