By Alex Webbe

Hublot’s Tara Lordi scored six goals, but none as important as the winning goal in a second

overtime shootout to defeat a tough AMG-Mercedes team in the finals of the 2011 Miami Beach

 Women’s Polo Cup on Thursday afternoon for the opening day of the AMG Miami Beach Polo

 World Cup and the sands of South Beach.

 Hublot (Tara Lordi, Melissa Hornung and Angela York) took an early 3-1 lead, but AMGMercedes

 (Anis Jamaludin, Costanza Marchiorello and Natascha Baecher) battled back to score

 three goals, tying at 4-4: Hublot’s Tara Lordi scoring the tying goal to force the first overtime

 period.

 After five minutes without a score, the teams settled on a shootout, with every member of each

 team getting a penalty shot opportunity.

 Anis Jamaludin put the first shot wide for AMG-Mercedes while Hublot’s Melissa Hornung

 connected for a goal. Costanza Marchiorello’s second shot also went wide for a second AMGMercedes

 miss. In a winner-take-all attempt, Hublot’s Tara Lordi connected for the tie-breaking

 goal and a well-deserved Hublot Championship 5-4 win. Lordi was named MVP for her efforts.

 In Bracket I play, The Raleigh Hotel (Stephanie Kraml-Suttle, Libby Scripps and Valerie

 Biehl) scored a tournament opening win over Gilt City (Abi Beaux, Aimee Waters and Kristina

 Gustafson), 3-0 before shootings down Jet Blue (Paula Chermont, Debra Atwell and Katherine

 Campos) in the finals with a 2-0 score. The Raleigh’s Libby Scripps taking MVP honors.

 Merchant Hub (Whitney Ross, Cristina Hosmer and Jeanne Blackwell) scored a 6-3 win over

 Gilt City in the Bracket I consolation match.

 Panama Jack (Lynn O’Connor, Debbie Nash, Jennifer Williams and Amy Deupi) bounced back

 from a 5-2 opening loss to AMG to record an 8-0 win over Grey Goose (Bobette Martin, Scarlet

 Davenport and Uneku Atawodi) in the Bracket II consolation round of play.