Sophomore Noelle Jung’s journey in fencing began in sixth grade with a simple advertisement in the mail and a flicker of curiosity sparked by a childhood movie. “I always wanted to try fencing because I loved the scene in the movie The Parent Trap Lindsay Lohan fences against her character’s twin,” Jung said. “I wanted to be just like the girls, and fencing looked like the coolest thing ever.”

In her first three years of fencing, Jung trained at multiple organizations, but still felt that she was being deprived of her full potential due to either a low competition level or an overall lack of support from her former coaches. Jung trained at Cardinal Fencing for more than year before seeking out a new club. “MTeam is a nationally renowned fencing club in San Francisco,” Jung’s father, Yoon Jung, said. “Since Noelle was beginning to compete at a national level, we decided to join.”

Since joining MTeam, Jung has been under the close instruction of head coach Greg Massialas and assistant coach Cole Harkness. According to Harkness, Jung’s strengths include her aggressiveness, which helps her to set the pace of the match, and her long lunge, which gives her an obvious edge. “I can think of way more weak points than I can strong though,” Jung said. “I lean forward a lot and I often panic when I’m on the defense. There’s still tons more that I need to improve on.”

Jung has participated and placed in multiple high-level tournaments, including Stanford Bay Cup where she won first place, and Junior Pacific Coast Championship (JPCC) where she placed sixth. “The JPCC tournament was really special to me because it was my first time ending up in the finals of a big tournament,” Jung said. However, according to Jung, her most memorable tournament took place on Oct. 12 of last year when she traveled to Columbus, Ohio to participate in the North American Cup.

Jung had to face her own teammate to enter the semifinals. “I could tell she was trying really hard to beat me because she was fencing differently from how she fenced in practice,” Jung said. “But I just focused on gaining one point at a time.” In the end, Jung came out on top, winning 15-8.

At the semifinals, Jung kept up a strong offense until the score reached 13-6. She was only two points away from qualifying for the finals.

However, Jung started to panic. “I kept messing up over and over again,” Jung said. “I felt horrible because it seemed like I couldn’t stop myself. Eventually she caught up and beat me 15-13. I didn’t even get one more point as she got nine more.”

Though Jung was unable to win the semifinals, she was able to place third out of 124 strong fencers from around the nation. “This is my favorite victory for Noelle.” Harkness said. “She utilized her intelligence and athleticism well that day, and we’re very proud of her.”

Currently, Jung is training for the JPCC, a qualifier for Summer Nationals in Houston. She is also looking forward to another national tournament in late April.

Jung has high hopes of fencing throughout college and beyond. “At first fencing was just a hobby, but I’ve been getting more and more into it,” she said. “I don’t want to sound cliché, but when a match gets really good, fencing is pure exhilaration.”