The Columbia fencing teams begin their true season this Sunday in Philadelphia along with the first part of the Ivy Championships at Penn.

Every season the schedule for the teams changes and in the 2007 edition, the Lions will face the three weakest teams in the Ancient Eight-Brown, Cornell, and Yale-first, with the top powers coming in two weeks.

"There's no doubt that the three strongest teams will be up at Harvard," head coach George Kolombatovich said. "I think Cornell will be a little stronger than last year, but the only enemy, and it's only a possible enemy, would be complacency. If our team goes out there and does what they are supposed to, we will come back with the wins."

Getting off to a strong start at the Ivy Championships plays a significant role in determining how a team will succeed. Last season the Lions drew eventual national champion Harvard in the first weekend and losses on both the men's and women's sides sealed their fate as the league runner-ups.

"This team is well aware that we are going to do everything we can not to be in a situation where we hope one team loses to that team," Kolombatovich added. "We can't begin to think like that because if we fence the way we can, we should come back with two Ivy titles."

"The whole season and our training has been leading up to these championships," sophomore epeeist Lorenzo Casertano said. "We're more than ready to take our title back from Harvard."

Casertano is on one of the two disciplines, along with women's epee, whose starters will not be announced until later this weekend, forcing every fencer to be ready to compete at a moment's notice.

The Lions have posted extremely strong non-league records coming into the Ivy Championships as the women are undefeated at 8-0 while the men are 7-1. Although the caliber of competition this weekend won't be nearly as high as the NYU Duals two weekends ago, the threat of a potential letdown is always present. Working with associate coach Aladar Kogler, the Lions have received mental training to keep them tough throughout all their bouts.

"My current speech is about UCLA-USC football," Kolombatovich said. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch and all those other clichés. They are all true and in order to avoid that, you have to have the talent, which I know we have."

"The women's team is undefeated right now and we plan to stay that way," co-captain Dani Gordet said. "We are really strong this year and we are looking forward to going out there this weekend and continuing that streak."

Columbia, along with other Ivy opposition, has squared off against a common opponent in NYU in the past two weeks. The Lions routed the Violets 25-2 in the men's bout, while NYU handily defeated Brown 20-7, overcame the Bulldogs 16-11, and hung tough with Penn in a 17-10 loss. On the women's side, Columbia cruised to an easy 24-3 win over NYU, much like its Ivy foes Yale and Princeton, who both dominated the Violets 20-7.

The Lions' first match is against Brown at 10 a.m. Sunday.