Men’s and women’s polo head coach David Eldredge ’81 has an unmistakeable confidence in his teams. And it is supported by his stellar record on both accounts. Each team boasts perfect records. The women are coming off a season ending with a national title. Both teams are preparing for runs at national title.
The men lost last weekend’s exhibition game to Greenwich. But as the old addage says, what does not kill us only makes us stronger. Hence, the Greenwich team, that exposed the men’s shortcomings allowed the coach to fix its weaknesses.
“Purdue brings a little bit of a challenge,” Eldredge said. “They are a returning team from the last two years.”
Last year the men lost to the Boilermakers, but missing in the match was the Red’s star player, senior Jeff Embow.
Regardless, the Red proved its superiority when Purdue’s men’s team was not invited to the national championships, while Cornell progressed into the national semifinals.
The women on the other hand are competing against a young and inexperienced Boilermaker women’s team. Eldredge, who had seen one of their games called them “A rather weak squad.”
He will be using this game to shape the Red into prime form. Paramount is the goal of getting junior Melissa Riggs “back up to speed.” After leaving Cornell last fall for foreign shores, the stalwart for the Red is starting in Saturday’s match. Unfortunately for Eldredge the junior is recorvering from a case of the flu spreading through the East Hill.
Neither Purdue’s men’s or women’s team is making head coach David Eldredge apprehensive, though.
“We expect that we should beat them handily,” he predicted.
In fact, Eldgredge is preoccupied with next weekend’s game when the teams face polo bigwig University of Virgina.
“[Those games] will be quite difficult,” he admitted. “That’s when we really have to buckle down. This weekend we will work out the kinks.”
Archived article by Amanda Angel