Frankie Vita Polo Tournament Championship
Sunday, September 16th was a great day weather-wise. The sun was out and it had rained the day before, making the dry polo field soft. There was a large crowd of polo enthusiasts to watch the final game of the tournament. The players were ready and anxious to start. The Shallowbrook team was facing the University of Connecticut team for the tournament championship.
The University of Connecticut team had for the first chukka had Kari Picard at 1, Lindsey Marrotte at 2, Kaila Dowd at 3 and Lelinda Brody at 4. Sarah McDermott subbed at #1, Sarah McDermott subbed at #2, Lisner Wisner split for #3 spot.
The Shallowbrook Team started the first chukka with Audry Persano at 1, Kristen Wenning at 2, Carly Persano at 3 and Jackie Dzwonkus and Hillary Blythe shared the # 4 spot.
After the National Anthem, the Shallowbrook team won the coin toss and chose to go to the often favored, blue goal. The players were introduced and the game started. The winning of the toss did not help the Shallowbrook team, as they were in a defensive mode for most of the first chukka. The University of Connecticut team controlled the ball for most of the first chukka forcing Shallowbrook to play a very defensive game. But as aggressive as the UCONN team was, Shallowbrook was able to keep them from scoring. It is hard to believe after 7 and 1/2 minutes of hard play the score was 0 to 0. Shallowbrook had the chance to score on a foul shot, on a crossing by Lindsey, but failed to do so.
The second chukka was a continuation of the first with both teams not being able to score, Shallowbrook had missed goals by inches but at half time the score was still 0 - 0. Hillary Blythe played the #4 position in this chukka for the Shallowbrook team.
The third chukka started with an inspired Shallowbrook team. We don't know what Coach (Hal, Sr.) Vita told the team at half time, but it worked. Kristen started with two goals back to back and one more by Audry gave Shallowbrook a 3 to 0 lead. The defensive playing of the Shallowbrook team held the UCONN team scoreless. The chukka ended 3- 0 for Shallowbrook. The # 4 position was covered by Jackie Dzwonkus in the third chukka.
The forth chukka started like the third with Kristen making the only goal thus cementing her name on the MVP award. Our young team has a very promising future in polo, that’s for sure.
We want to thank the players for giving us a great exciting game.
The next women's polo will be indoors on the 9th - the 11 of November. Look for the notice on our website.