Polo Reaches Semis of Tourney

The Harvard Polo Club galloped to the semifinals of the Intercollegiate Tournament at Cornell on Friday before losing to the host Big Res, 20-6.

Harvard defeated Skidmore in the quarterfianls on Thursday, 20-6.

The Cornell team is "one of the best east of the Mississippi," said junior Eric Lambrecht, president of the Polo Club.

The Harvard team faced Cornell without their best player- Santiago Sanchez- Elia, a visiting student affiliated with Eliot House. Sanchez- Elia had to return to Harvard to take the TOEFL.

Sanchez- Elia had planned to fly back for the semifinal game after his test, but the tests ended an hour after his plane left.

"I was so disappointed I couldn't make it," he said.

The team was disappointed too- Sanchez- Elia scored 16 out of Harvard's 20 goals in Thursday night's game against Skidmore.

"He is an amazing player. He was one of the best players of his age group in Argentina, and Argentina is the place for polo," Lambrecht said.

"If we would have beaten Cornell, we probably would have won the tournament," senior Caley Castelein said.

Thursday night's victory over Skidmore was relatively stressless, according to Lambrecht.

"Right off the bat we were blowing them away," he said.

Teams from Yale, Skidmore, Cornell, Connecticut and Harvard competed in the tournament. The winner advances to a national tournament, held later this year.