We Made It!!! --- Emily Mueller and Sarah Milligan

After several neckpillows, two airplane meals, and 8 hours of watching Julie Mooney contort her body in every possible position to get comfortable, we arrived in Milan at 7:30 am. We were completely exhausted, but started to get excited when we met our tour guide, Flavio (aka Flava Flave!). We loaded all the luggage onto our Mercedes Benz tour bus where Sergio (the Lion of Como) took us to our hotel in the heart of Como. On the way, we asked important questions like, "Are there squirrels in Italy?" ~ Erin Hollinger.

We dropped off our luggage at Hotel Plinius and set off on a tour of Como. The views were amazing, from the Alps in the background to the architecture in the streets. Flavio directed us through the town to the Saturday Flea Market. We were left on our own to shop and Lauren Elkin taught us all how to barter. All that shopping made us hungry, so we stopped by an outdoor cafe where we ate the greatest sandwich we've ever had. The fresh mozzarella and the tasty cappuccinos definitely helped us re-energize for more shopping.

Jet lag started taking its toll right around the time we were leaving for practice, so to wake us all up we practiced outside on a turf basketball court with the Alps in view (a very European way to start our basketball "training sessions"). After practice, we came back to the hotel, got dressed and went to dinner. We were served pasta, veal, and coffee ice cream. It was fantastico!! Despite having had dessert at the restaurant, we stopped for some gelato (our second time that day). We walked around Como for a little while longer before we returned to our hotel and slept like we've never slept before. So far, our trip to Italy has been great!

Here we go!

Basketball Season Begins--Sarah Milligan '12, Team Captain

On October 15, the Case Women’s Basketball team prepared for our first day of practice. It was a day we had been anticipating since the end of last season. After last season ended, we hit the weight room and focused on improving our skills on the court. But on October 15, all of our hard work in the offseason was over and it was time to start practicing. We were all so excited to get started, but also nervous to see what Coach would throw at us during practice. The first practice was challenging and physically demanding, but we worked hard and pushed ourselves to get better. One of the best things about our team is that we are all so supportive of each other—we are always there to pick each other up. We came together during the first practice, and it was a great feeling. (Sarah is pictured above, far right)

The first week of practice as a whole has been great. We have done a lot of conditioning, started to work on our offense, and of course we have focused on our team’s pride—our defense! It is exciting to see how our team is shaping up, what our strengths are and what we need to improve upon. I am so excited for this season. We have so much talent, great unity and a lot of enthusiasm. We have set high goals for our team, and we are working hard every day to reach those goals!

First UAA Basketball Road Trip Goes Into OT

First UAA Basketball Road Trip Goes Into OT
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!

Posted by Creg Jantz at 09:09 PM Comments

Spartans Race for the Cure!

This past Saturday, we laced up our running shoes and headed downtown for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was a beautiful day for running—the sky was clear, the sun was shining and there was a nice cool breeze.

We all met up at Starbucks to walk to the RTA Rapid station, but we ended up sprinting! We were walking leisurely under the bridge on Euclid, and all of the sudden we heard the rapid above us. Kristyn was leading the way—she dropped into a dead sprint! We all followed suit and bolted around the corner, up the stairs and onto the platform. Miraculously, we all made it on the train and it ended up being a great warm-up for the race!

When we finally got downtown, we met up with Coach Reimer and Coach Blade. We ended up splitting into two groups so that some of the girls could register for the race. We didn’t think about how hard it would be to find each other again among thousands of people! When my group was looking for Coach Blade’s group, we were drawn to the main stage area. Little did we know we were about to get a real warm up! Island music started playing and the announcer introduced a jazzercise instructor! Immediately, Caitlin, Erin and I jumped up and joined in. We shaked and shimmied our way to a sweat doing the Zumba moves. After the warm-up, it was time to start the race. (Erin Hollinger, Caitlin Henry and Sarah Milligan pictured left to right.)

The streets were crowded with people, and we still couldn’t find the rest of the group. When we got the front of the pack, we realized that the race had already begun for the runners! We quickly started running and began playing catch-up. We figured the rest of our teammates were at the front of the group, so it was our goal to find them. Somewhere in the middle of the race we caught up with a few of our teammates. It was great to find them and have some extra encouragement during the race! As we ran around Cleveland and past the Browns Stadium, the finish line was in sight. Everyone who finished early was waiting at the finish line to cheer the others on. It was a great to have so much support! We finished up with some ab-work and then found the free ice cream! The race was a great team bonding experience, and it was for a great cause! I can’t wait to participate again in the years to come. (Marissa Miles, Ashleigh Tondo, Coach Reimer, Awesome Pink Dude, Erica Iafelice, Erin Hollinger and Kristyn Atkins pictured left to right.)

The same afternoon we all drove out to the Farm to have a cookout with the boys’ team. We had a little difficulty finding the Farm, but after turning around about 4 times on the same road we finally found it. It was a fun afternoon of eating, playing cornhole and catching up with each other. It was a great day filled with the best teammates—I can’t wait to see what this season has in store for us! (Spartan men's and women's basketball teams pictured below.)