Recently the men’s and women’s teams traveled to Ithaca, New York to play in Cornell Polo’s William Field Invitational Tournament. Following our own Fall Invitational this was the second opportunity of the season for the players to face tournament play against other schools’ teams and our teams were ready for it. The competition included Cornell men’s and women’s teams, University of Kentucky’s men’s & women’s teams, and the Colorado State University women’s team.
The UVA women started the tournament off by playing Colorado State University on Thursday, which they won. Later that evening the Cornell women were victorious in a match against University Kentucky, setting Saturday’s final up to be between Cornell and UVA in the women’s division.
The women’s division final between Cornell and UVA “was a very competitive match right up to the last 30 seconds. The girls never gave up and fought their way from a deficit to within one goal,” Coach Lopez recounted.
The men’s division began Friday with a UVA vs University of Kentucky match up that ended with a victory for our orange and blue. On Sunday, the Cavalier men met up against the Cornell men in the finals. Going into the fourth chukker with a 8-9 goal deficit the UVA men made an impressive recovery to secure the tournament win.
Mak Mourad Shah, Samuel Jaramillo, Lou Lopez, Iago Masias, and Wil Ballhaus, 2025 William S. Field Tournament Winners
After trailering back to Forest Lodge the Virginia Polo ponies are turned out for their winter break, the large pastures “out back” across the pond give these well-deserving ponies a chance to be horses and rejuvenate until next semester.