October 26-30 the Virginia Polo Center was host to the Virginia Fall Invitational. Cornell’s polo teams traveled from Ithaca, NY with ponies and Southern Methodist University teams joined the competition from Texas.
This year the tournament games were held in a Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday format to allow for a day of rest for the ponies between competitions. Wednesday evening the tournament began with Virginia women taking on Cornell’s women, the game ending in a 10-2 victory for Virginia. Following the women’s game, the Virginia men defeated Cornell’s men in a tighter scoring 8-6 victory.
Friday’s games between Cornell and SMU were closer fought with final scores of SMU winning 8-5 in the women’s game and Cornell winning 9-7 in the men’s.
Saturday was a day of horse care and camaraderie at the Virginia Polo-hosted taco-style BBQ held at the Beh House for all the teams to socialize and enjoy.
Sunday the competition ramped up again with Virginia’s women defeating SMU in the first game. In the following game the Virginia men bested the SMU men, clinching the double tournament victories for the teams.
Another great victory of the weekend was the wonderful coverage of the tournament by the staff at UVAToday. Check out the feature filled with action shots they published, here.
