Indio, CA (December 22, 2008) – Considered an underdog against Tanya Paneno’s Empire polo team, Kim Garced’s Urban Dog foursome prevailed in the final of the Debii Dollar Conant Memorial Women’s Tournament on Sunday by a score of 5 – 4. The 2008 tournament was, for the first time, a Women’s Championship Tournament event.
Urban Dog: Jan Hart (Manager at Eldorado), Jessica Bailey, Caroline Anier, Kim Garsed and Kirsten Ludwig.
Given a handicap goal at the start , Urban Dog fought off a relentless Empire attack, led by Sunny Hale, and came out of the scoreless first period with the one goal lead and were lucky to do so. The second was far better for Garced’s group as Caroline Anier and Jessica Bailey combined to put offensive pressure on the Empire foursome leading to an open goal conversion by Anier. Hale, with an open goal of her own and a superb run off the ensuing thrown-in at center tied the score at two at half-time.
Abby Riggs and Hale scored once each for Empire to Anier’s one in the third and Paneno’s team led by one (4 – 3) going to the fourth. With most everyone in attendance expecting Empire to dominate the final chukker, Anier and Bailey, along with a huge defensive effort by Garced to stop Hale, scored once each to grab the victory in a very entertaining polo game. In fact, many were heard to comment that Debii Dollar Conant would have been proud of the quality of polo exhibited in her memory.
Bailey and Garced were chosen as the Most Valuable Players.
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Debii Dollar Conant Memorial 2008
Urban Dog (2) – Kim Garced -1, Caroline Anier 2, Jessica Bailey 1, Kirsten Ludwig.
Empire (3) – Tanya Paneno -1, Vicky Owens, Sunny Hale 3, Abby Riggs 1.