History
Women's Arena Open
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. The inaugural winners of the tournament included women’s polo pioneer Sue Sally Hale and her daughter Stormie alongside Judith Baker. After a three-year stint however, and back-to-back wins by San Francisco’s Suzy Solvin, Kathy Batchelor and Caroline Anier, the tournament fell into abeyance. As women’s polo grows, 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 last year 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 inaugural Women’s Arena Open will feature four teams from the 18-22 goal level with competitors traveling from as far as California and Hawaii.
The Association is also working to secure the transition of students into life-long members. “The Women’s Arena Open is yet another defined path that female players can follow to either continue their polo careers as amateurs or professionals,” said Maureen Brennan, High-Goal Committee Chairman. “There are so many young women in the United States Intercollegiate and Interscholastic programs that can now aspire to participate in such an important tournament beyond their years as a student. My motivation to play in this inaugural Women’s Arena Open is to support women’s polo in general, to play with and against the best female arena players in the country and to be a part of history which I find very inspiring. The healthy number of teams in the U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championship™ and Women’s Arena Open is very symbolic of the role of women in polo in the United States and globally,” Brennan continued.
Photo: 2016 Women's Arena Challenge Cup Champions - Virginia 1 (Mary Collins, Katie Mitchem, Julia Smith). ©Peter Grant
