The men’s polo team may have a case of triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13, as the Red held its second chukker goal total against UConn this past weekend to a mere 12, not wishing to invite any misfortune, especially on, you know, Friday the 13th.

Still, the 12 second chukker goals, coupled with the zero goals Cornell yielded in this period, was enough to give the team a comfortable lead en route to a 23-13 victory. The Red is now a perfect 3-0 at home, and improved its record to an impressive 5-1.

Cornell opened the game with a slow start, allowing UConn to score the opening goal. However, the Red steadily picked things up, and eventually the first chukker came to a close with Cornell ahead, 3-2.Constant pressure: Junior captain Max Constant led the men’s team with 12 goals against UConn on Friday night

The second chukker was when the floodgates broke lose, as the Red put on a remarkable offensive showing. The team scored a dozen goals, which also happened to be a dozen more than it allowed. This dominating play gave the team a commanding 15-2 lead after the second chukker.

Senior Dan Grew attributed the Red’s successful second chukker to its ability to “keep the pressure up.”

“Our speed, and a bunch of the other things we’ve been working on clicked in the second chukker,” he said. “It gave us a huge leg-up the rest of the game.”

“We were able to play our game in the second chukker,” said head coach David Eldredge. “UConn is a tough and scrappy team, but they’re not built for speed, whereas our team is built for speed. UConn kept trying to slow down the pace of the game, but we were successful in keeping it up.”

The third chukker was considerably more balanced in terms of scoring, as the Huskies outscored the Red, 5-4.

Finally, the Huskies opened up the fourth chukker with six unanswered goals, cutting the lead down to 19-13. Still, their comeback proved to be too little too late. Plus, the Red added four more goals for good measure.

Junior captain Max Constant led all scorers with 12 goals. Freshman Branden Van Loon posted seven goals, and Grew posted three goals.

“I’m exceptionally pleased with our victory,” Eldredge said. “UConn has been tough on us the last couple of years. I’m a little surprised we played as well as we did.”

Grew added, “the win was a great way to lead into this week’s tournament.”

Eldredge said his team needs to work on consistency for this week’s Bill Field Invitational Tournament, hosted at the Oxley Equestrian Center. “Every game, we have one or two solid chukkers, but we need to be more consistent and maintain that level of play throughout all four chukkers.”

“I’d love to see us put up four chukkers of play like that second chukker against UConn,” he added.

Grew believes that the key for being successful in this week’s tournament is “not committing too many fouls.”

“Fouling not only kills our transition play, and slows the pace,” he said, “but it gives the opportunity for the other team to put goals up on the board. We need to be more careful in preventing mistakes.”

The women’s polo team was victorious against UConn as well, with its 26-7 win on Saturday at the Oxley Equestrian Center. With its second win over the Huskies this season, the women’s team built its undefeated streak to six games.

The Red opened the game by scoring four unanswered goals, and amassed a solid 6-1 lead after the first chukker. Junior Lizzie Wisner posted an impressive four goals in this chukker.

In the second chukker, the Huskies cut the lead to 7-4, but the Red was able to build the lead back up, ending the second chukker 10-5.

After that point, the Red never looked back. Led by Wisner’s six third chukker goals, the Red found itself ahead, 19-5, after three.

The domination didn’t stop there, though. Cornell outscored UConn some more in the fourth chukker, and came away with a 26-7 victory.

Wisner led all scorers with 14 goals, while senior Erin Bold scored four times and classmate Jessica Cross scored once. Sophomore Ali Hoffman, who played only the fourth chukker, scored three times. The other four goals were split between the ponies and penalty goals.

The women’s polo team will also be participating in the Bill Field Invitational this weekend at the Oxley Equestrian Center.