First UAA Basketball Road Trip Goes Into OT
By Sophomore Sarah Milligan (Canton, OH)
By Sophomore Sarah Milligan (Canton, OH)
The start of University Athletic Association games is always an exciting time. There is not only great competition, but great opportunities to travel around the country. UAA teams are consistently ranked in the Top 25 of Division III basketball. The games are fast paced and very physical. The competition and traveling make UAA’s the best and most anticipated part of the season.
Last Thursday, we loaded the bus for our first UAA trip and left for Rochester, New York. After about a five hour bus ride, we got situated in the hotel and went to the gym for practice. After practice, we went to our team’s favorite barbecue restaurant —Dinosaur Barbecue.
As soon as we sat down, large platters of barbecued chicken, beef brisket, potatoes, corn, rolls and cornbread were brought out to us. The amount of food on the table was slightly overwhelming, but after the first delicious bite all worries were gone. We cleared every platter of food and enjoyed every bite! My favorite was the beef brisket.
The next morning after our shoot around, we went to a delicious sandwich and bagel shop called O Bagelo’s for our pregame meal. The sandwiches were made with thick homemade bread and tasted wonderful.
We were ready to face our first UAA opponent — Rochester. The game was intense. It was fast paced, as expected, and the score was close throughout the game. Unfortunately, we were outrebounded and ended up losing the game despite our great effort. It wasn’t a winning night for the Spartans, as the men lost their game too. We all were tired after the game but didn’t have much time to sleep because our flight to Atlanta was at the crack of dawn the next morning.
We had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday morning in order to catch our flight — everyone was exhausted. We finally made it to Atlanta around 12:30 p.m. and briefly stopped at the hotel before leaving for another practice. We were so tired we didn’t know how we would make it through a practice, but we knew we had to be prepared to beat Emory. Saturday night in Atlanta, we went to the Fox Sports restaurant downtown. It was a really fun atmosphere with great food. We were even in the same room as a retired NFL player and a group of players who were trying to get drafted.
We woke up Sunday morning ready to beat Emory. We finally recuperated from the early plane flight and were excited to get on the floor. Our team got off to a slow start, but thanks to a great second half we were able to come away with our first UAA win of the season! Now, we were ready to get home for the first day of classes, but there was a slight problem. We found out that our flight had been delayed 3 hours because of power outages at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. We were disappointed we would be getting home late, but were happy our flight could still make it in. We arrived at the airport and someone yelled, “Hurry, the flight is now on-time! It leaves in twenty minutes!” We all ran up the non-moving escalator to the desk and to our dismay, our flight had been cancelled! We were shocked and disappointed to be missing the first day of class, but the situation was out of our control.
We stayed at the Westin Hotel near the airport, went to a place called Joe’s to get some food, and then called it a night. The teams were split up on three flights Monday — one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. The first flight was to leave at 9:20 a.m., but ended up getting delayed an hour. We thought we were in for another rough day at the airport, but thankfully no other flights were delayed or cancelled. We were finally home safely and glad to be back on campus after 5 long days. It was an exciting and memorable trip and I look forward to the rest of the season!
