Spartans hit Boston & The Big Apple--By Emily Mueller

This past weekend we reached the halfway point of UAA play, but don’t ask me how the time went by so quickly. We traveled to Boston and New York City to face Brandeis University and New York University. Sadly, we were missing one of our teammates. Chelsea Peck couldn’t make it due to shoulder surgery. She was definitely missed, but we felt like she was there because she sent inspiring texts to us throughout the weekend. I’m also happy to say that her surgery went well.

Our basketball weekend started a little early. On Thursday morning, a very lucky six of us who didn’t have class got to practice before we finished up our packing and prepared ourselves for the trek to the RTA station. During our ride, a few of us were privileged to meet some very interesting characters. We all made it to the airport and onto the airplane. As we were situating ourselves in our seats, we found out the flight was delayed, so we all made our way back to the gate where everyone got a lot of (cough) homework (cough) done. Eventually, we got back on the plane and had a safe trip to Boston.


Directly after the flight, we went to the famous Hard Rock Café for dinner (thank you Mrs. Henry!!!). After dinner we were let loose to explore all Boston had to offer. Due to the cold, we weren’t outside exploring for very long, but we did find Cheers (where everybody knows your name). Around 10 pm, we made it to the Double Tree Inn, and I ate one of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Friday morning we woke up early for our shoot around. Because we took the earlier time slot, we were left a lot of time in between the shoot around and our pre-game meal to do more homework! Erica, Evy, and Nikki were lucky enough to get to take a chem. test (proctored by none other than Professor Reimer) during this time…I’m sure they all aced it.

After eating at a nice little Italian restaurant, we bussed to the Brandeis gym, where we unfortunately lost. It was a tough loss to handle, but through it we gained the tools to learn how to be a better team and how to play together.

Saturday morning we woke up early again for a lovely 4 hour bus ride to New York City. We got to our hotel (Radio City Apartments) with enough time to drop off our luggage and then go out and find somewhere to eat before practice. After practice, we got to our hotel and we had about 45 minutes to get ready for our Alumni dinner. For most of us that would be plenty of time, however there were three or four girls to most rooms and only one bathroom to a room. We were also having some issues with the elevator. Let’s just say it’s not a good idea to try and squeeze 12 people into an elevator only meant for about 6 (you’ll end up going down…not up).

By some miracle, we all made it down to the lobby very close to being on time. We then walked through streets of New York City to the pizzeria where our Alumni dinner was being held. This was the first time I had ever experienced NYC and I’m sure people could tell. I was walking around with my jaw permanently dropped pointing and oohing at everything I saw (most notably a very large Borders that Chelsea Lasky and I would very much like to visit sometime…what can I say, we go to Case). After the dinner, we were once again set loose upon the city. I still can’t believe how exciting everything was. There was an advertisement on every wall, bright lights everywhere, and taxis racing through the streets (I’m sure of this because I was nearly run over by a taxi…twice).

Sunday morning we were pumped and ready to play. We left for the gym at 11:30 so we could watch the guys’ team play. About 3 minutes into the game, an alarm started going off. At first everyone was annoyed, but didn’t think anything of it…until the announcer told us to evacuate the building. We made it outside and watched as the fire trucks made their way to the gym. After a few minutes of waiting, we were allowed to go back in.

Before we started our game, Evy lead us in a new pregame ritual. We put our arms around each other’s shoulders, swayed side to side and made some NOISE. It was a great way to get us all pumped for the game. Despite a lead in the first half, we ended up losing to NYU, but the effort was definitely there. Next week, we get the chance for revenge as we face NYU and Brandeis again in our House.