Oct. 30, 2007
Thursday, October 25
We didn't leave for Newark, NJ until three o'clock in the afternoon, so I actually had to go to my Thursday classes. After making it to Frericks with our over-packed bags, we ate our Jimmy John's orders and waited for the bus. Unfortunately, our flight was cancelled so we had to improvise. Half the team was going to Cincinnati to fly to Newark on a later flight, and the other half of the team was sent home to wake up early and catch a morning flight out of Dayton. I was sent with the group going to Cincinnati that night, and even that flight ended up getting delayed an hour. We got to the hotel in Philadelphia pretty late and were all asleep only minutes after hearing our roommate assignments.
Friday, October 26
We woke up around nine to get breakfast at the hotel. About an hour later, the rest of the team joined us at the hotel and we headed to La Salle's field for a short practice. The narrow turf field wasn't very impressive, and we were soaked by the rain after stretching and working on set plays. We ate lunch in the hotel. Our waitress lied to us about the soup that they didn't end up having, but our food ended up good anyways so it worked out. We hung out for about an hour and then headed back to the field for our five o'clock game. It was raining even harder than before, and we all looked like drowned rats by the end of the first half. Mandi scored one in the first half to tie the game at 1-1, and she finished on another opportunity in the second half for us to win 2-1. We were all looking forward to changing out of our wet clothes and grabbing some dinner at Friday's until our bus got a flat tire. Some parents that had come along for the trip came to pick up as many as their car could carry and took them to hotel, but the rest of us ended up on the bus for an extra hour and a half. Once back to the hotel, we showered and ordered food from Donato's.
Saturday, October 27
We woke up around 8 a.m. and ate breakfast at the hotel again. We left Philadelphia for our hotel in New Jersey and the bus ride only took about an hour and a half. A lot of us were still tired from traveling and the game, so we had free time during the day to nap and hang out around the hotel. We met up at four for dinner at Houlihan's. After dinner, we headed into New York City for some sightseeing and the broadway play Wicked. We walked a few blocks and saw Times Square, the ice skating rink at the Rockefeller Center, and the TRL plaza. We made our way to the theater and spent the rest of the night watching the three hour musical. On the bus ride back to the hotel, we saw New Yorkers walking the streets in all types of costumes on their way to clubs. Some of the more memorable ones were a girl dressed up as a gold digger and a guy dressed as Brittany Spears from the VMAs.
Sunday, October 28
We woke up at eight to eat breakfast. We left for Fordham's field around ten, but we got lost on the way there. We arrived at the field only ten minutes before game time but we ended up having about a half hour to warm up because it was their senior day. We scored early in the first half but they managed to finish on a corner kick to tie the game. The second half and both overtime periods were scoreless and we left the field disappointed with a tie. We went to a really nice Spanish restaurant for dinner. After dinner we drove the rest of the way back to Newark's airport. After several flight delays and a few rounds of Catchphrase (my team won every time), we made it back to campus around midnight. As a team we were unhappy with the results of the weekend, but we had guaranteed ourselves a spot in the A-10 tournament so it was time to leave behind any disappointment we felt from the season and prepare for the next three games we needed to win to get to the NCAA tournament.
