USPA Women's Arena Open
Tournament History
Women’s arena competition has a recent history in the sport beginning with the creation of the Women’s Intercollegiate Championship in the late 1970s, followed by the Girls’ Interscholastic Championship in the early 1990s. Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, hosted the first USPA-sanctioned Women’s Arena Open in 1991. After a three-year stint however, the tournament fell into abeyance. With the exponential growth of women’s polo in recent years, the Association recognized the need for a national tournament celebrating the best of women’s arena competition.
Championed by University of Virginia Coach Lou Lopez, the Women’s Arena Open first took shape in 2016 at Virginia Polo Inc. in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the Women’s Arena Challenge Cup. While the original aim had been to hold an open tournament, Association regulations limited an “open” arena tournament to a 12-goal handicap and above. The highest-rated woman at the time, the late Sunny Hale, was rated at 5-goals in the arena, followed by only two 4-goal women’s arena players, closing the door on the possibility of the tournament with regular arena handicaps. Luckily a precedent had already been set with the creation of the U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship™ the outdoor grass version. The addition of women’s outdoor handicaps sparked the concept of women’s arena handicaps, which allowed multiple teams to meet the required handicap level for an open tournament.
The 2017 USPA Women's Arena Open featured four teams with Ace Sportswear coming out on top 13-5 to take home the inaugural national title. In 2018 Marlan Farm challenged the defending champions and assumed the trophy 16-6. Although not played for in 2019, the 12- to 15-goal USPA Women's Arena Open is back in 2020 with four teams and has relocated to Great Meadow Polo Club in The Plains, Virginia. Among the competition is Team USPA alumni and 2017 champion Anna Palacios playing on Badass Polo. The Open will offer $2,500 in prize money, split between first ($1,500) and second place ($1,000).
As a National USPA Arena Event, the USPA Women’s Arena Open is a qualifying tournament for all amateur players -1 through 3 goals to earn points towards the National Arena Amateur Cup (NAAC) which will be held at Legend's Polo Club in Kaufman, Texas, in November 2020. Points are be based on the number of teams and team standing in each tournament. All points are awarded to each team member, not the team as a whole.
As the country emerges out of the COVID-19 crisis, the USPA established opportunities to support USPA Member Club events through the use of the COVID-19 USPA Polo Tournament Stimulus Package, which provides eligible USPA Member Clubs with waived tournament fees, trophies or reimbursements, one professional umpire and $2,500 in prize money per tournament at no extra cost. Offered to each club for the first two USPA tournaments of 2020 following the COVID-19 USPA Tournaments and Events suspension, Great Meadow Polo Club will be taking advantage of the program for this tournament.
The semifinals and final will be livestreamed by USPA Polo Network and available exclusively on Global Polo TV.
Photo: 2018 USPA Women's Arena Open Champions: Marlan Farm - Kelly Wells, Marissa Wells, Sophie Grant. ©Mike Ryan.
