Saddle up, lock and load. The Oxley Equestrian Center was the place to be this past Friday and Saturday, as both the men’s and women’s polo teams started their 2006-07 campaigns on good notes. The men won their game 19-15 in come-from-behind fashion while the women dominated their Saturday game by a score of 26-7.
Skidmore was supposed to be the opponent for both the men’s and women’s games. However, the Skidmore men’s team had to pull out of Friday night’s match-up due to an unfortunate injury and a roster of limited players. Local club, Central New York Polo, was gracious enough to fill in for Skidmore on short notice.
“It was just an unfortunate circumstance,” said head coach David Eldredge ‘81. “They had a limited number of players and they had an unfortunate injury that didn’t allow them to play the full team. At this point, we had to postpone that game to another date until he is healthy. As for Central New York, it was nice to get the club to fill in for Skidmore. It actually ended up being probably a better match than the Skidmore match, as for as the competitive nature of the game. It was very good.”
[img_assist|nid=18935|title=Horse play|desc=Senior Ariel Katz scores in the first half of the women’s polo team’s 26-7 rout over Skidmore this past weekend.|link=popup|align=left|width=66|height=100]
Sophomores Richard Weidel, Jesse Llop and Bobby Harvey started for the Red and had plenty of success against Central New York. Weidel and Harvey each scored three goals in the first half, but the Red still trailed, 9-6, going into the third quarter. In the second half, junior Brian Fairclough and senior captain Stan Feldman joined Harvey and solidified the win late in the game. Harvey tallied nine goals while Fairclough scored five for the Red. Weidel and Feldman scored three and one, respectively.
“I was very happy with the team’s performance,” Eldredge said. “They played very well. They actually came out and did exactly what I was hoping. We picked up right from where we left off last year. They felt very comfortable and handled the pressure very well in their first game.”
Harvey, the Red’s high scorer in the game, is already showing improvements from last year’s season and could offer the Red a dynamic one-two punch by complimenting Fairclough.
“Harvey is definitely improving all of the time,” Eldredge said. “There was a little bit of rust at the start, but it got better as the game moved along. I was quite happy with where his play has come to.”
As for the women, seniors Ariel Katz, Monica Ganley and Ariana Constant put the game away early. The team put a 16-spot on the board at halftime while only giving up one Skidmore goal.
“We came out this game and absolutely destroyed them,” Eldredge said. “We shut them out in the first period, and it was 16-1 at the half in our favor. And I didn’t even have in one of my starters. Senior Julie Nicholson had to be out of town for a family affair. Overall Katz, Ganley and Constant all did very well.”
Katz led the way with 10 goals while Constant and Ganley contributed four and one, respectively.
