Despite season's successes, polo falls in preliminary tournament

The Vassar women's polo team hoped for their particularly successful season to culminate in a trip to the Northeast Intercollegiate Regional Tournament, to be held at Cornell University on March 12-14. The team stands at 2-7 for the season, and has so far beaten such formidable opponents as Yale University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass).

Before making it to the regional tournament, however, the team needed to secure their spot by winning the Northeast Preliminary Intercollegiate tournament hosted by The University of Connecticut February 20th and 21st. Unfortunately, the goal of making it to the regional tournament was cut short, and despite well-founded hopes, the Brewers fell 21-4 in their first match against UMass on Feb. 20.

Having already beaten UMass and Yale University in their regular season, the team went into the preliminary tournament, which also included Johnson and Wales College, hopeful they could advance to the Regional Tournament. Eventual champion UMass proved to be a tough opponent.

"We played them a month ago, and we won, so it was kind of disappointing to play them again and lose," said Marina Wambold '12. "I really wanted to go to Regionals, but it was really nice to be there and be part of it."

Though they did not make it through pre-regionals, the tournament was a highlight of a particularly active season. "Last year we weren't nearly as competitive," said Captain Kaylin Myers '11, who happened to take home the Tournament Sportsmanship award from the preliminary tournament. "Playing as many games as possible is definitely the way to do it."

Despite this being a particularly busy year, this was not the first foray into the sport in Vassar's history. A New York Times article from Jan. 21, 1915, now on display in the National Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame, suggests that Vassar was on the cutting edge of collegiate women's polo when several Vassar girls joined up with students from Bryn Mawr and Wellesley Colleges for a match in Central Park. The gathered students split into a red and a blue team for the game.

The article notes, "The women played a splendid game and many of the spectators who went there expecting to see a burlesque on outdoor polo were pleasantly surprised and applauded the numerous good plays that were made." However, "There were one or two bad ‘crosses,' but there was also a lenient referee and they were overlooked."

Today, the team is more overlooked by potential spectators rather than by referees, and Myers and Wambold hope to make the sport more of a presence on the Vassar campus. "It's a really great sport to watch," said Wambold. "Maybe we'll publicize games a little bit more and arrange to bring people."

"We're always interested in taking people," Myers said. She went on to explain the team's possible plans to host a tournament or larger event in the spring where many people from campus could come to learn about the game and enjoy watching it be played.

Currently in its 10th year as a club sport at the College, the team began in 2001 and has picked up steam ever since. "The team has continued to improve each year," wrote polo Coach Duncan Huyler in an e-mailed statement.

Generating more and more interest as the years go on, Vassar polo is on track to be a serious force in intercollegiate polo and is certainly a team to watch at Vassar.