The University of Virginia men and the Cornell women celebrated meaningful victories in the National Intercollegiate tournament held at Cornell's Oxley Equestrian Center in Ithaca, New York from April 18-23. Both the men's and women's championship were between Virginia and Cornell.

The championships are always an exciting time for the participating teams, especially since it takes a lot of time and effort to get there. The students must practice, travel to competitions and help care for the horses, all the while keeping up with their college studies.

The USPA manages the event in conjunction with the host school or club, organizing a myriad of details including horse strings, a social schedule and game schedule, and awards presentation. USPA tournament managers were Kim Syme and Amy Wisehart.

The USPA held a banquet on Thursday evening, emceed by new Intercollegiate/Interscholastic cochair Duncan Huyler. Players enjoyed dinner and dancing while enjoying streaming photos taken by Wisehart and projected on a large screen. At the event, Huyler, Syme and Danny Scheraga presented an engraved plaque of appreciation to Bruce Wells for serving as the I/I committee chair for 15 years.

The next day, students had some fun with the newly introduced Groom's Race. Forty-two students formed 14 teams, competing in heats. The winner of each heat, competed in a championship round where two team members had to function as one person while tied together. Prizes were given to first and second place. There was a great turnout and students had so much fun they have requested it be repeated at future NIC events. But for now it was back to polo.

Texas A&M had reached the final in each of the last five years. UVA got the best of it in 2009, but the Texas men fought back taking last year's title from UVA 21-17. This year, Texas failed to reach the championship playoffs. The UVA men did, and were anxious to have the school's name etched on the historic trophy, presented by John R. Townsend in 1922, for the tenth time.

The first men's playoff games had the University of Connecticut defeating Texas Tech 19-15 while Colorado State stopped Westmont also by 19-15. After receiving a first round bye, the UVA men showed their dominance by trouncing the University of Connecticut 33-5 to advance to the final. Cornell, which also received a first round bye, edged Colorado State 22-28 to take the other final spot.

Final day promised to bring plenty of action. Before the final, members of Cornell's interscholastic girls' polo team, including Elena Wicker, Olivia Barton and Emma Eldredge, sang the National Anthem.

For the men's final, the UVA team had no trouble controlling Cornell from the beginning. Virginia's Felipe Viana put the first goal on the board and added four more in the first chukker. Teammates Mauricio Lopez and C.B. Scherer combined for three more while Cornell was held to a single goal from Connor Pardell and three from Max Constant.

The three Virginia players added six more in the second while holding Constant to two, and taking a 14-6 halftime lead. Virginia didn't slow down in the second half. Five goals from Scherer and a penalty conversion from Lopez were countered by a goal from Pardell and a pair of penalty conversions from Branden Van Loon. Trailing 9-20, Cornell had its best chukker in the fourth when it connected five times. Still, it wasn't near enough as the hard-driving Virginia trio added eight more to take the 28-14 victory.

For the women, Cornell hadn't seen a championship title since 2004. It came close in 2005 and 2009, but lost both times by two goals. This year, the action got going with Texas A&M beating Colorado State 12-8, while defending champion University of Kentucky downed Cal Poly 21-9. Cornell had its first win over Texas A&M 22-11 while the University of Virginia eliminated the University of Kentucky 18-17 by virtue of a shootout after the teams remained tied at the end of regulation time. The University of Virginia women would face Cornell in the final.

In the final, Lizzie Wisner struck first for Cornell and teammate Kailey Eldredge followed with a goal. Wisner added a two-pointer before Kylie Sheehan put Virginia on the board with a penalty conversion. Virginia bounced back in the second. Julia Steiner and Sheehan scored to come within one. Wisner then traded goals with Isabella Wolf, but Wolf's second goal was a picture-perfect two-pointer, tying the score at 6-6 at the half.

Cornell took control in the third with six goals including a Wisner two-pointer while holding Virginia to two. A strong fourth period for Cornell ensured the 18- 10 victory.

This was lucking win number 13 for a Cornell women's teams since the Cup was first presented by Katydid Farm in 1976.