Virginia Polo hosted the 2024 Fall Invitational Tournament October 23-27th. Featuring five women’s teams: University of Kentucky (UK), University of Virginia, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Cornell and four men’s teams: UVA, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University and Cornell, the polo center was abuzz with activity over the long weekend.
Women’s Division
The competition started Wednesday afternoon with a match between UK and UVA women. UVA’s women took an early lead with Alana Benz, Mackenzie Craig, and Kelsey Bray in the arena. Alana and Mackenzie returned to the team this year after their National Championship win in April. First year Kelsey Bray is a powerful new addition to the team. In addition to Kelsey, Caroline Blang joined the team this fall earning herself a spot from Club Team to Women’s Varsity in try-outs earlier this semester. Caroline had her debut in intercollegiate tournament competition in the fourth chukker as the team flew towards a 21 to 2 victory over UK.
In an every-other-day schedule designed to give the ponies rest between games, the UVA women returned to the arena Friday afternoon against Southern Methodist University. UVA took an early lead with goals by Alana, including two 2-pointers. Lindsey Morris of SMU brought the team up with 3 goals scored in the 2nd chukker, making for a close competition that remained throughout the rest of the game. Following halftime the teams stayed neck-and-neck ending in a close win by UVA with a score of 12 to 11. This victory ensured the UVA women a spot in the finals.
Friday’s evening game between the Cornell Women and Texas A&M women came next. A&M had a roster filled with strong players with lots of talents on both defense and offensive. Olivia Boo Reynolds scored 3 goals in both of the first two chukkers and teammate Sophia DeAngelis also scored 3 in the second chukker, of these goals 5 were successful penalty shots. Cornell’s Lara Chang also added to the scoreboard with 2 penalty shots and teammate Naomi Marlough added three points to the board in the final two chukkers. But it was not enough to beat the Aggies, and A&M secured their spot in the finals with a winning score of 14 to 6.
Sunday, the day of the women’s finals, drew a crowd. The arena railing was lined with enthusiastic spectators for both the consolation round-robin and the women’s finals. The day began at 11 AM with UK and Cornell starting off the first two chukkers of the round-robin style consolation match. Cornell took the “W” in this match-within-a-match 7 to 5 over UK. The next two chukkers saw Cornell lined up against SMU which the SMU ladies won at a score of 8 to 6 over Cornell. Finishing off the first match SMU took on UK. SMU’s Lindsey Morris shown bright in this match-up scoring all 5 goals for her team and securing the win of 5 to 4 over UK.
As the last action of the tournament the women’s finalists took to the arena- Texas A&M and UVA. The first chukker ended in a draw with one goal on the board for each team. The tide turned in the third chukker when each of the UVA players scored- Alana converted two penalty shots, Mackenzie scored next, then Kelsey Bray hit a 2-pointer. With this triple assault UVA took the lead and ran with it through the end of the game finishing the tournament as the champs with a 13 to 6 victory over a challenging A&M team.
Men’s Division
With four teams in the tournament the men’s competition began on Thursday afternoon in a game between UVA and Southern Methodist University. UVA’s Gaston Gomez scored the first goal of the tournament and UVA team captain Vlad Tarashansky set the team up for success with an early spate of 5 goals in first chukker. The UVA men held the lead throughout the game. Mak Shah added 2 more points to the board in the second half, helping lead the team to a 13 to 9 win over SMU and earning the UVA men a place in the finals.
Next came the Cornell vs Texas A&M match up. Despite a close first half, with a score of 3 to 4 favoring A&M at halftime, the Aggies came back stronger and with 3 goals in a row from Zak Coleman A&M took the lead. Four more goals from Coleman in the final chukker along with 2 from Aiden Meeker brought the final score up to 14 against SMU’s 4. A&M would meet UVA in the finals for both men and women.
Saturday began with the men’s consolation game played between Cornell and SMU. SMU racked up the points in the first chukker with a whopping 8 goals, partially due to 2-pointers from both Shane Metternick and August Schneekloth. Cornell’s men fought back with four goals in the second chukker but were unable to catch the lead SMU set early on. In the fourth chukker Cornell scored four goals without answering points from SMU, but ultimately lost to the Texas team with a final score of SMU 18 and Cornell 9.
The men’s finals promised to be a competitive and exciting event with both teams strong and on their familiar horses for half the match. Zak Coleman set an early lead with four goals in a row in the first chukker, Vlad answered back in the second chukker with four goals of his own but A&M’s captain Coleman scored twice more to retain the lead going into halftime. The score stayed close throughout the match, as the men battled it out the last chukker saw points scored by UVA’s Mak and Vlad and more from A&M’s Zac. Ultimately Texas A&M’s men prevailed winning the tournament trophy by a goal with a final score of 12 to 11.
