Kicking off its spring season, the men’s polo team will defend its home turf tomorrow against the Canadian International Polo Club (IPC). The match will begin at 8:15 p.m. at the Oxley Equestrian Center.
The Red has never faced Canadian IPC, but head coach David Eldredge ’81 knows they will bring a skilled squad to East Hill.
[img_assist|nid=21079|title=Swing for it|desc=The men’s polo team will begin its spring season tomorrow when it hosts the Canadian International Polo Club.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=66]
“[They are] young, but extremely talented,” he said. “It’s going to be a good starter for us coming into the semester.”
The regular starting lineup of junior Brian Fairclough, sophomore Bobby Harvey and senior captain Stan Feldman will take the field for the Red this weekend. Depending on what Eldredge sees, reserves such as senior Andrew Fairclough and junior Dan Crespo may see playing time as well.
“If we play well, we should soundly beat them,” Eldredge said. “If we start making foolish fouls, then it’ll be a game. As long as we do it right, we’ll come out on top.”
In a closely contested loss to Virginia, 14-13, in the finals of the Bill Field Invitational in November — the men’s only loss in the fall season — “foolish fouls” made the difference between victory and defeat, according to Eldredge. Though the Red started strong, it committed 22 fouls to the Cavaliers’ 13.
“They didn’t beat us on the field. They beat us because we fouled them back into the game,” Eldredge said.
He explained that the team needs to concentrate on having what he called the “will power” to carry a no-foul philosophy through the weekend.
“If we stay on that path, then we’re really going to be successful,” Eldredge said.