Team and individual success at every level of collegiate competition defined the 2007 season for the Columbia fencing team. The women's team went undefeated in the regular season against the toughest schedule in the nation, while the men's squad took home the NCAA Championship in March. As a whole, the Lions ended up with the bronze at the NCAAs, in addition to sophomore Daria Schneider's individual national championship in women's sabre.
In a high-profile nonconference dual meet at NYU in late January, the Lions went a combined 9-1 against four of the top-10 teams in the nation, including a 5-0 day for the women's team. Of the five teams that Columbia faced at the NYU Duals, three eventually qualified at least 10 fencers for the NCAA Championships, with the early success at the lower Manhattan campus signifying what was to come for the Lions.
After easily defeating three more teams in a tune-up for the Ivy Championships, Columbia began the two-weekend Ancient Eight competition. Week one saw both the men's and women's squads go undefeated against the lower-tier Ivy programs, leaving the Lions with the difficult task of traveling to Cambridge to take on defending men's champion Harvard and defending women's champion Penn.
In what would be only the men's team's second loss of the season, the Light Blue fell to the Crimson by the narrowest of margins, 14-13, the same score as their loss to Ohio State at the NYU Duals. Still, a 4-1 Ivy League record secured the men a share of the Ancient Eight crown while the women's perfect 6-0 record earned them their first Ivy title since 2003. Six women's fencers made first-team All-Ivy League, as did five men, while two other men qualified for second-team honors.
The Lions continued their success at the oldest collegiate fencing tournament, the IFA Championships, where the men's team took the title and the women came in third place after fighting off injuries suffered over the course of the season. Next up was the NCAA Northeast Regionals back in Cambridge, where, for the first time in the history of the program, Columbia qualified the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA Championships. In fact the Lions qualified 16 fencers, but NCAA regulations limit teams to only six per gender and two per weapon.
At the NCAA Championships in Madison, N.J., the Lion men capped off one of their best seasons in history by taking the national title for the first time since 1993. Columbia defeated Penn State by four points with a score of 93 and although only one member of the Light Blue earned a medal-freshman Kurt Getz with a bronze in men's foil-all six Lions earned All-American honors.
After getting a lead from the men, the women could not hold on to the overall team title-by the end of the four-day competition, the Lions dropped to third place behind Penn State and St. John's. Still, three Lion women earned All-American honors-Schneider, junior Emily Jacobson, and senior Cassidy Luitjen-while both Jacobson an Schneider earned medals in the individual sabre competition.