ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's and women's polo teams each earned hard-fought victories in a rare trip outside of the region, topping Colorado State 16-15 in a tightly-contested men's match on Friday evening, and taking Saturday's women's matchup 23-4.

The mile high altitude and deep ring caught the men unprepared early and the Rams jumped out to a 6-2 lead after the first chukker. Max Constant, Branden Van Loon and Connor Pardell finally adjusted in the second chukker and cut the lead to 8-6 at the half. The Big Red cut the lead to one twice during the third, but ended still down 10-8 after three. The fourth started off very well as Cornell immediately pulled to 10-9. Colorado State jumped out for three quick goals to make it 13-9 about halfway through the chukker. Cornell answered with four goals of its own to take its first lead at 14-13. The Rams were not done though and came back with two goals, the last with 50 seconds to play, to take a 15-14 advantage. Cornell scrapped back and Connor Pardell scored the tying goal with less than 10 seconds left on the clock.

The first shootout round ended 2-2, and the second ended 1-1, as did the third. It was 1 – 0 Cornell in the fourth round after two CSU players had shot and missed. Van Loon was up and ended the match with a well-placed shot, giving the Big Red the 16-15 victory.

The women were also excited to be in Colorado. Cornell dominated the play and held a 2-1 lead over the Rams when towards the end of the first one of the Colorado State starters was injured. The Big Red took a 3-1 lead into the break. Cornell broke out in the second and took a 9-2 lead into the half. Jess Cross came in for Ali Hoffman and Cornell continued to build its lead by shutting out the Rams in the third and ending the chukker up 15-2. Cornell finally relaxed a bit and still built their lead in the fourth, bringing home the 23-4 victory for Cornell. Lizzie Wisner and Kailey Eldredge each tallied nine goals while Cross added three and Hoffman two.