<p>Sada and Emily Jacobson are happy to be competing at home for a change and don't mind facing each other in the process.</p><p>Sada, ranked No. 1 in the world in women's saber, defeated younger sister Emily 15-13 to win the title Saturday at the U.S. Fencing National Championships.</p><p>There were more smiles than steely glares exchanged between the Olympians during the intermission before their final bout at the Georgia World Congress Center, but once the sisters stepped onto the strip, they were focused.</p><p>"I get on the strip and I fence her just like I would fence anybody else," Emily said. "I try to win as hard as I can. And after the bout, no matter who wins, we're sisters. It doesn't carry over."</p><p>Moments before the championship bout, the sisters exchanged a communal high-five with coach Arkady Burdan. Once they put on their masks, they settled into a tight bout, in which neither led by more than two points.</p><p>"I think it's like fencing any other opponent," Sada said. "But we're training partners, so we know everything about each other. I know her strengths and weaknesses and she knows mine."</p><p>Emily reached the finals by defeating Alexis Jemal of Westfield, N.J., 15-9. Sada beat Mariel Zagunis of Portland, Ore., 15-13 in her semifinal.</p><p>Having fenced in tournaments around the globe, the sisters from suburban Dunwoody, Ga., for once didn't have to travel far for a competition.</p><p>"I've never had a tournament where I've been able to sleep in my own bed the night before," Emily said.</p><p>The short drive from home was a far cry from trips to Eastern Europe and Cuba that they've made within the past year, while Emily was still in school.</p><p>"It's definitely not typical high-school life," Emily said, adding that "it's a lot of fun."</p><p>Sada, 21, is a junior at Yale and has taken three semesters off to train. Emily, 18, will finish her senior year of high school next week. Both will be spending August in Athens.</p><p>Sada qualified automatically for the Olympics by being the top-ranked saber fencer in the world at the end of March. Emily, at No. 10, was the highest-ranked woman in the Americas region outside the top eight, just beating out Zagunis, who was No. 11, and only two points behind.</p><p>In 2003, Sada became the first U.S. woman to be ranked No. 1 in the world in any discipline and won the overall World Cup title. Emily recently won the gold medal at the world junior championships.</p><p>Fencing runs in the Jacobson blood. Their father, Dr. David Jacobson, fenced at Yale in the early 1970s and was a member of the U.S. saber team at the 1974 World Championships. In the years after college, Jacobson stopped competing, but his interest was rekindled when his former college coach, Henry Harutunian, stayed with the family during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.</p><p>Harutunian suggested that Jacobson join the Nellya Fencers club in Atlanta that was run by Burdan, and Jacobson took him up on it. Within two years, his daughters gravitated to the club and picked up the sport.</p><p>"None of this was ever planned," Jacobson said. "I had no expectation that my girls would ever fence, and certainly no expectation that they'd ever fence at this level."</p><p>While the sisters had similar introductions to the sport, they've developed distinct styles that have been encouraged by Burdan.</p><p>"She has a more fluid, longer attack and I'm much more precise," Sada said. "I'm more of a defensive fencer."</p><p>However, there is one Jacobson whose style Sada considers similar to her own.</p><p>"Emily and I have very different styles, but I fence much more like my dad," Sada said. "He has very precise technique, a lot of blocks, and very sharp footwork."</p><p>Harutunian, who has coached Yale's fencing teams for over 30 years, sees the same spark in Sada that he saw in her father.</p><p>"She has the same personality as her father," he said. "The desire to be the best of the best of the best."</p><p>In that pursuit to be the best, the Jacobson sisters have faced each other in competition on a few occasions, yet neither holds a grudge.</p><p>And with two very successful daughters, it's not hard for their father to watch them compete.</p><p>"It's not as tough as you might imagine," he said. "Usually when they do meet up, they're meeting up at the very end of the tournament."</p>
