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.