In a three-part series, University of La Verne women's basketball seniors Christina Kinney and Michelle Webb provide an inside look into the Leopards' trip to Las Vegas as they compete in the D3hoops.com Classic.
PART I
Vegas Baby! After a nice holiday break, we - the University of La Verne Women’s Basketball Team - are ready to return to competition and are headed for Las Vegas for two games at the D3hoops.com Classic.
It's been over a week since our last game and we play Coe College from Iowa on Friday afternoon. We were originally scheduled to meet Carroll University from Wisconsin, but they got snowed in which forced the schedule change for Friday.
We began the journey at 6 am as we departed from campus. We ventured on our four-hour drive mostly on Interstate 15, with many of us getting some much-needed sleep. We finally hit our destination. We settled into our rooms and then headed for a two-hour practice in the Arena at the South Point Hotel, located about six miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
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The Arena was actually nicer than what we had anticipated, and practice was also more intense than we originally thought. Once practice was over we went to Coach (Matt) Rogers's room where he had sandwiches and chips for lunch. After an hour break to clean up, we gathered together and headed to the famous Las Vegas Premium Outlets where most of us girls literally shopped until we dropped. There were way too many good deals to pass up.
The stores were really crowded, but it was a good experience especially for those of us that have never been to Vegas before. After the outlets, we went to a buffet that had all the different kinds of food you can imagine. They offered Mongolian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, and International food.
Once we finished stuffing our faces, we returned to the hotel, changed into our sweats and pajamas, and headed into one room to play Phase 10 and watch movies. We watched the Clippers defeat the Celtics and also played Pitch Perfect on a laptop. We later shared stories and bonded until lights out at midnight. Looking forward to getting back to action on Friday.
