VARSITY ATHLETICS

January 23, 2008

Last visit to Chicago and St. Louis...

By Mary Herendeen - Senior Guard - Austinburg, OH

Julia Gorski to my left and Ashleigh Tondo to my right on our flight back from a four day excursion to Chicago and St. Louis.

This was the first big UAA trip both teams have taken this season, as we faced the Maroons and the Bears in competitive conference play. Unfortunately, we are returning to Cleveland with a 0-2 record which made this weekend seem pretty long for all of us.

Playing two incredibly tough games in just three days means our bodies are sore, our brains are fried and we just can’t wait to get into our beds at home. Luckily, tomorrow is MLK Day, so no classes will give us time for sufficient and much-needed rest.
During these past four days our team has been lucky enough to bring back a lot of great memories. The scary landing into Chicago that made our stomachs jump started off the weekend. Colleen and I won the coolest shoes award, we ate some famous deep dish pizza, Ashley and her crew finally got their cake shakes, and we battled Chicago until the very end. Pictured below at Chicago airport with 7-7 Manute Bol, a former NBA player.

In St. Louis, the most excitement came after both teams practiced, when Beth [Andrasik] randomly hit four half-court shots in the time that Todd hit two. Everyone’s mouths dropped after Brad [Sutton] nonchalantly threw a baseball pass from the baseline into the opposite hoop LeBron James-style. Another really happy part of the trip came when our starving team got to the Spaghetti Factory to find out we had a 45 minute wait. It was a good thing that the food came fast because 11 hungry girls isn’t the prettiest sight to see.

As a senior, this was the last time I’ll ever play these two teams in these cities again. That may sound sort of depressing, but focusing on all of the opportunities I have had with basketball makes it hard to complain. Almost all D-III college athletes never have the opportunity to fly to their league games, but we get that chance every year and it amazes me every time I think about it.

Obviously the trip to Chicago and St. Louis could have been better with a win or two in the bag, but I can’t let that completely overshadow the good times we had as a team. Traveling like this for the past four years has been awesome and I’m just glad I get to do it with the people I care so much about.

Posted by: Creg Jantz January 23, 2008 09:01 PM | Category: Women's Basketball

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) January 23, 2008 09:01 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback