(L-R) Jackie Dubrovich, Margaret Lu, Nicole Ross and Sabrina Massialas celebrate their bronze medal at the women's foil fencing world cup on Oct. 15, 2017 in Cancun, Mexico.
The U.S. women’s foil fencing team earned the world cup bronze medal on Sunday in Cancun, Mexico.
And the team did so without world No. 3 Lee Kiefer, who won the individual gold medal Saturday.
The United States defeated Canada 33-26 in the bronze-medal match following a thrilling 45-44 overtime loss to Russia in the semifinals.
Kiefer sat out the team competition, with Jackie Dubrovich, Margaret Lu, Sabrina Massialas and Nicole Ross taking to the piste for Team USA.
Ross finished sixth in Saturday’s individual competition.
Kiefer, Lu and Ross helped Team USA to its historic first-ever world championship silver medal in July in Germany. Massialas sustained an injury during the individual portion of the world championships and was replaced by Nzingha Prescod for the team competition at worlds.
That team defeated Russia 45-42 to make the world championship gold-medal match, losing only to Italy. Russia upset Team USA on Sunday and ended up taking the gold medal with a 45-42 win over Italy.
The U.S. received an opening round bye on Sunday and needed some resilience to hold off a charged-up Hungary squad, earning a 45-44 win on a touch from Ross, who scored the final point against Hungary’s Franny Kriess to put Team USA into the semifinals against Russia.
Gary R. Blockus is a journalist from Allentown, Pennsylvania who has covered multiple Olympic Games. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
