Indiana University Athletics
Hoosier Road Trip with Sara Joseph
3/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
March 25, 2009
Photo Gallery of Indiana's spring break trip to Las Vegas
Photo Gallery of Indiana water polo at the LMU Tournament and Aztec Invitational
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Throughout the 2009 Indiana water polo season, members of the team will be keeping a journal of their travels for IUHoosiers.com. Freshman Sara Joseph checked in from San Diego, Calif., where the Hoosiers took part in the Aztec Invitational this past weekend.
Friday, March 20, 2009
We arose EARLY Friday morning and traveled down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the team. We eventually loaded the vans and I inhabited the backseat which was my home for the majority of the trip. We got settled in for a long car ride to San Diego where we were asleep for most of the time. Unfortunately some of us were abruptly awakened by a fish in the microwave alarm sound from the Jim Rome ESPN Radio Show and Kristin Harmidy's inner beast was briefly awoken. Thankfully everyone was kept under control and the radio show quieted down.
We stopped in Barstow where we got to eat at Denny's. Breakfast was delish except for the fact that they would not allow poor Redder to have chocolate chips in her pancakes! At this breakfast, we also discovered that some Canadians get their milk in bags, this concept is still perplexing to us.
After breakfast we continued our drive to San Diego and ended up at our hotel around 12:30 p.m. When we got out Barry told us to put our running shoes on. We were all in a panic because we weren't in any shape to start running after such a long drive. Luckily, we only ended up having to walk a few blocks just to stretch our legs. This was still too much exercise for Amy Moore who needed several "slow claps" and cheers in order to find the will to finish. After our walk in the beautiful sunny San Diego weather, we made our way to our game versus Brown at San Diego State University where we came out victorious.
For dinner we went to Kara Butler's house. There were several games of ping pong and badminton where myself and Nicole Redder dominated. The food was scrumptious...especially the rolls, just ask Lauren Wyckoff and Jakie Kohli who managed to polish off over 30 of them together. Overall it was a wonderful evening where the team and their parents could catch up. After dinner we went back to the hotel where everyone was soon tucked into bed and fast asleep.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel and then departed for SDSU where we played No. 4 ranked Hawaii. After the game we went back to the hotel to eat lunch. The parents brought us the lunch and we got to hang out with some of the families. Amy's dad kept trying to eat all of the delicious pumpkin rolls, but luckily we were able to contain him long enough so that we all got to try some. After lunch we headed back to the pool to play No. 9 San Jose State, although it was a loss, the game was very close.
After the game the most epic moment of the trip occurred...we capped Redder. We fit her entire body into one of those little swim caps. It took a lot of skill to make that happen, and I am still proud of us.
For dinner we were allowed to break off and eat with our family and friends. My family and Amy's stayed at the hotel and got In N Out and pizza. Amy even took us on her secret passage way out of the hotel; this secret path ended up being the same route that the exit signs were directing us to, but that is okay. It was very nice to be able to see my family and spend time with them.
Eventually everyone made their way back to the hotel to get a good night's rest for the next big day.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
We had another early riser this morning, around 6:30, and thankfully the hotel was nice enough to bring us some bagels and other delicious goodies. We then departed to go play No. 6 Cal Berkeley. We lost, but played much better against them then we did the last time so that was a positive. After the game, we went back to the hotel to pack our things and get ready for our next game.
We got back to the pool deck and hung around for a while before playing our next game against No. 5 SDSU. Unfortunately the weather was not being very nice and we were freezing cold, but we did not let this affect us, and we played very strong against SDSU at their home pool although we lost 9-6.
After the game we loaded the vans and headed up the 5 freeway, stopping in my hometown for a delightful meal at Islands. During this meal, Kate Dunn revealed that she did not appreciate her father's attempts to create family home movies, and promised to show us the video where she screamed at him in defiance. After dinner we went straight to the hotel where we hung out and watched the new episode of Desperate Housewives! It was beyond epic. We then got some rest before our flight back to Bloomington in the morning.
