The MSU junior varsity Polo Club is an all-female team dedicated to playing the high-end British sport.
The sport has two teams competing against each other to get a ball into a goal. The women ride on horses the entire time while trying to swat a plastic ball in the right direction with a wooden mallet.
They do it week after week, but only for the sake of practicing.
The club has no competitions, scrimmages or audience.
Throughout the year, the members’ hard work at Sandalwood Ranch in Williamston, Mich., goes unnoticed. But that is only until the final week of the season, the JV Cup.
Every year during the last week of practices, the players take the strategies they learned all year and face against each other for a three day tournament, said education junior Taylor McEvilly, one of the coaches of the junior varsity team and a member of the varsity team.
“It’s a fun thing,” McEvilly said. “The whole goal is to try to beat the varsity with good competition.”
The tournament consists of three five-minute-long duels. During the duels, three member teams try their best to get a hand-sized plastic ball across a 100 feet by 250 feet indoor area in Sandalwood Ranch.
Every night, the team that wins best two of three games advances and gets one step closer to winning the JV Cup and a final match against the varsity club players.
However, the losing team instantly kisses the season goodbye until next year.
On Monday night, graphic design sophomore Katelynn Humble officially ended her season when she was knocked out of the tournament with a 5-3 defeat in the final round.
But instead of being upset, she happily greeted both of her parents, who had come to watch the tournament, and looked forward to the fall to begin again. She said she plans on returning to the club every year until she graduates.
“It’s a complete rush,” Humble said. “It’s really exciting and everything goes by really fast — it’s a thrill.”
For most of the members, the club gave them their first opportunity to play the game. The team holds try outs in the beginning of the school year for those interested in trying it out.
“It’s really a game of strategy when it comes down to it,” McEvilly said.
