Marquette University Athletics
Returning From Out West
1/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
by Monica Frede
This past week, we traveled to San Diego for the Surf and Slam Tournament, hosted by the University of San Diego. We left the day after Christmas, and we stayed through New Year's Eve. This tournament just about wrapped up our non-conference schedule (besides Penn State, whom we play at home, this Sunday). We played Mississippi first, and unfortunately we lost to them. Then we played host San Diego and beat them. Although we were rather disappointed in our loss to Mississippi because we could've played much better, we stayed focused and energetic to take down San Diego in front of their home crowd.
Besides the games, there was much to enjoy on this trip. Our hotel, the Westin, was very enjoyable. We all liked the "heavenly" beds, bathrobes (which Drew, one of our managers, proudly modeled for us), and pillows in our rooms. Our hotel was connected to a large outdoor mall, and for those of us who LOVE to shop, this was a bonus. Almost all of us needed to shop at least one of the days, because we had our annual "secret Santa" gift exchange the last night we were there. Some people (no names needed) like to save their gift-buying to the last minute.
We also got to go to the well-known San Diego Zoo one afternoon. Crystal and Michelle Nason (the extremist animal lovers of our group) definitely enjoyed this experience, and Crystal even came home with a few more stuffed giraffes for her collection. The weather was good to us when we were there, it only rained for part of the afternoon.
All in all, this was a successful trip because we grew, once again, on the court, and we had a lot of fun off the court. We will wrap up our non-conference schedule against Penn State Sunday, January 2nd, and then conference starts!
And the memories continue.
Until next time,
This is the seventh entry in a series of diary entries by senior forward Monica Frede. Her diary will appear during the course of the 2004-05 season on www.gomarquette.com.
