A-F
Pony Farm wins U. S. Women’s Open Championship in overtime
By
Alex Webbe
In a hard-fought, physical battle that left winners and losers
bruised and sore, A-F Pony Farm (Karen Reese, Dayelle Fargey, Tiffany Busch and
Lia Salvo) scored an exciting 6-5 overtime win over a star-studded international
San Saba polo team (Dawn Jones, Caroline Anier, Clarissa Echezaretta and Lesley
Ann Masterton Fong-Yee) in the finals of the 2012 U. S. Women’s Open
Championship at the Houston Polo Club.
“It’s just so amazing,†said an exuberant Tiffany Busch,
following the win. “I can’t believe it,â€
she added.
With an altered lineup that had Lia Salvo replacing the
injured Abbey Riggs (Abby was injured in a hard ride-off in the final chukker
of Friday’s semifinals against BTA), the A-F pony Farm foursome took the field
against a powerful San Saba lineup that included French 2-goaler Caroline Anier
and Jamaican 2-goaler Lesley Ann Masterton Fong-Yee. Add to that a strong 1-goal captain in Dawn
Jones and veteran Clarissa Echezaretta, and you see a very impressive polo
team.
A-F Pony Farm might appear relative docile on the
surface, but make no mistake of the talents and abilities of each of its
players. Abbey Riggs, Karen Reese and
tiffany Busch are well-known commodities on the playing fields, and the
addition of former 2-goaler Dayelle Fargey seemed to be the perfect blend.
San Saba’s path to Sunday’s finals came at the expense of
ERG (Crystal Cassidy, Cecelia Cochran, Ina Lalor and Mumy Bellande) in a 7-4
win followed by an exciting win over the defending championship Goose Creek team
(Maureen Brennan, Carin Middleton, Kristy Outhier and Sunny Hale). A-F Pony Farms route wasn’t quite that easy.
A first round Bye was followed by a second round loss to
Goose Creek, but an 8-7 win over BTA in semifinal action allowed them to sneak
into the finals. It was in the
semifinals, however, that Abbey Riggs was injured and forced to sit out the
finals. Argentine 2-goaler Lia Salvo
filled in for her, and the rest is history.
San Saba and A-F Pony Farm battled back and forth
throughout the game, with the two teams leaving the field after the first two
chukkers of play in a 3-3 tie.
“It was brutally even,†related Tiffany Busch, “It was constantly
back and forth,†she added. “They were
up by a goal, we were up by a goal, then we were tied, it was brutal,†she
said.
San Saba took a 5-4 lead into the final 30 seconds of
regulation play when Lia Salvo broke through to score the tying goal and force
overtime.
The two teams returned to the field for the overtime
period and played over two minutes into it when Tiffany Busch drove a
well-executed neck-shot through the goal posts for the win.
“I have sores and bruises all over my body,†said Tiffany
the day after the match, “but I am so excited.â€
With the girls shipping horses back home, tiffany Busch
will be heading back to Florida where she will have a brief rest before
preparing to join Melissa Ganzi and sunny Hale to play with a US team against a
7-goal English women’s lineup on Sunday, November 25th at the Grand
Champions Polo Club in Wellington.