The Cornell men’s and women’s polo teams began their seasons last weekend against the University of Connecticut in Storrs, hoping to follow up the
immense successes of the 2000-2001 campaigns.
The women’s squad won the national championship last year and began its defense with a 25-5 defeat of Connecticut behind 12 goals from Taylor McLean.
However, the Red needed to fight through a much more difficult match against the Central New York Polo Club the next day, which ended in an 11-11 tie. The defending champ’s next challenge will be to defeat the Huskies again, in a Saturday night matchup in Ithaca. After that, it will play Skidmore on Oct. 26 which will be followed by the USPA Old Timers Tourney that same weekend.
Likewise, the men’s polo team began its season this weekend in Connecticut. It will next play the Huskies again on Oct. 19 before joining the women’s team in contesting the Old Timers Tourney the next weekend.
Included in the long term schedule is the William Field Invitational in mid-November, a title that Cornell won last year.
In addition the men will be looking, throughout the season, to reach and surpass the achievements of last year, when they reached the national semifinals before suffering a 24-17 defeat at the hands of a University of Virginia squad that they had beaten two prior times during the season. Anything they achieve, though, will have to be done without last year’s top player, Jeff Embow, who scored 11 of Cornell’s 17 goals during the Virginia defeat.
The man at the focal point of the effort to reach last year’s heights is Dave Eldredge ’81, who returns to once again, coach both teams. It will be a busy
winter and with a packed slate of contests. Both teams will have ample opportunities to show that they are up to the challenge of meeting the expectations brought by past achievements.
Archived article by Andrew Bernie