Crowds clamor for more beach polo
action in Grey Goose North Beach Women’s Cup Finals
By Alex Webbe
Warmer
weather and light breezes greeted the nearly two thousand spectators that
showed up at Chicago’s North Avenue Beach for Sunday’s final round of play in
the debut of the Grey Goose North Beach Women’s Polo Cup.
The
finalists had been determined in Saturday’s contests with Gascon and Lufthansa
scoring wins over Grey Goose and Trump
Residence, respectively, while Titan Commercial and Lufthansa emerged from the
five teams in contention for the world cup.
The
highly-touted Gascon polo team of Melissa Hornung, Tara Lordi and Angela York
arrived in Chicago as the odds-on favorite in the Grey Goose North Beach
Women’s Polo Cup, and did little to tarnish their image as York scored the
opening goal of the game for a 1-0 lead after the first period of play.
Lufthansa
responded with goals from Megan West and Whitney Vogt (penalty
conversion). Hornung’s first goal of the
day had the score knotted up at 2-2 after the first half of play.
Valerie
Biehl opened the scoring in the third to give Lufthansa a 3-2 advantage, but
Gascon fought back to get the tying goal on a penalty shot from York. The score was all even at 3-3 with one
chukker left to play in regulation time.
Vogt’s
second penalty goal of the game came in the fourth chukker and gave Lufthansa a
4-3 edge with time running out when Tara Lordi scored her first goal of the
game to knot it up at 4-4 as time expired.
A confident
Gascon team stepped up for the overtime shoot-out, a formula that would allow
each member of each team an opportunity to score on a penalty shot with each
team taking turns until the winner emerged.
Hornung,
Lordi and York had captured the South Beach championship in April in the same
manner, and were confident of their chances in Chicago. With five of the first six shots going wide
of the mark, and all three Gascon shots missing the mark, it would be Vogt who
would prove the difference scoring her third goal of the day for the Lufthansa
win.
Vogt led all
scoring with three goals. Teammates West
and Biehl added single goals in the win.
York led the
Gascon team with a pair of goals.
Hornung and Lordi scored single goals in a losing effort.
Vogt was
named MVP for her efforts while Marcelo Cabeza’s Negrita, played by Tara Lordi, was named Best Playing Pony.
GREY GOOSE TAKES CONSOLATION ROUND OF
PLAY
In earlier
action, Grey Goose scored a narrow 4-3 win over Trump Residence on a penalty
shot from Samantha Falbe in the final seconds of regulation play to capture the
consolation round of the Grey Goose North Beach Women’s Polo Cup.
Trump took
the early lead on first chukker goals from Nigeria’s Neku Atawodi and Tracy
Regas, with Grey Goose settling for a lone goal from Brazilian Paula Chermont. Falbe tied it up at 2-2 in the second
chukker, but Regas closed out the first half scoring with her second goal of
the game for a 3-2 halftime lead for the Trump Residence trio.
Both teams
pressed the attack in the second half of play, but defense held firm. Penalty conversions from Aimee Waters in the
third and Falbe in the fourth accounted for the final scores of the match. Falbe’s penalty shot came with seconds left
to play and secured the win for the Grey Goose team.