The Columbia fencing team is in a very familiar spot heading into the second weekend of the two-part Ivy Championships-win, and the title will be theirs.

After a surprising part one of the event, the Lions cruised to an easy undefeated record on both the men's and women's sides in Philadelphia. With the other top three Ivy teams awaiting the Light Blue in Boston, three more victories this weekend could mark the first time since 2002 that the Lions will have held both the men's and women's titles at the same time.

First up for the Lions on Sunday will be the Princeton Tigers. The Tigers' men's squad was defeated by Penn 14-13 two weekends ago in a match that came down to the foil fencers. Princeton is easily weakest in sabre on the men's side, scraping out a narrow victory over Harvard and Brown 5-4 and falling to Penn 6-3. The Tigers, led by junior Tommi Hurme, who went 9-0 in Philadelphia, are strongest in men's epee. Should Columbia exploit Princeton's weakness in the sabre and foil disciplines, the men will most likely walk away with an easy victory.

The Princeton women have not been up to their usual form this season, losing to both Penn and Harvard by wide margins. The sabre and foil weapons will once again be key to taking down the Tigers on the way to the Lions' fourth Ivy victory as they head into their most difficult match, against Harvard.

The Crimson is the defending national champion, and will be boosted by a home crowd in Cambridge. But the Harvard team is not without its weaknesses: the men were upset by Princeton 16-11, primarily due to a poor epee performance. The epee squad bounced back against Penn, however, contributing an 8-1 performance in Harvard's 19-8 rout. Harvard will be the Lions' most difficult test, as it will most likely not have another lapse on the epee side like it did against Princeton.

Harvard's women's side returns to Cambridge as one of the other two undefeated squads besides Columbia. Two close matches between Penn and Princeton showed the same inconsistency as the men's team in the epee discipline. The Lions must play to their strength in the sabre discipline to take a large lead over the Crimson and then pick up a few bouts in the other weapons to secure the victory.

The final match of the Ivy Championships will be against Penn. The Quakers took down Princeton in an upset, but the Crimson annihilated the Quakers in their match two weekends ago. The men's sabre squad is Penn's best in the men's draw, but the Lions have their own strengths in that discipline, with two of the top three sabrists after week one of the competition in senior James Williams and freshman Jeffrey Spear, both of whom are currently undefeated. A strong foil performance, coupled with a confident epee team, should lead the Lions to victory.

For the Quaker women, dominating performances against Yale and Princeton and a close 14-13 win over Cornell puts them in the same position as the Crimson and the Lions: undefeated coming into week two. The match against the Big Red exposed Penn's weakness in the sabre, and Columbia has the top three women's sabrists after week one in juniors Emily Jacobsen and Danielle Gordet, and sophomore Daria Schneider. Should the women's epee and foil teams pick up three or four wins each, the Lions should be able to take down the Quakers.

Columbia is in an enviable position: one win away from the title. Consistent fencing bout-to-bout will determine if the Lions can finish with an undefeated record and be crowned Ivy champions.