March 21, 2005

Life on the road can be hectic for college student-athletes as the Gonzaga University women's basketball team has found out over the past few days with their trip to the second round of the Sportsview.TV Women's NIT. Gonzaga will face the Lady Bears of Southwest Missouri State University later on tonight and the following is a quick journal of their adventures leading up to the game.

DAY 1 (Friday - March 18) Following a morning practice that forced sophomore guard Katy Ridenour to be sent to the eye doctor following a finger to the eye during one of the drills, all players and coaches made the 1 p.m. flight to St. Louis with a stop over in Salt Lake City. Ridenour was not the only Bulldog player to make it to a hospital over the course of Day 1 as junior forward Ashley Anderson went to a hospital in Missouri for an emergency removal of her appendix in the middle of the night.

DAY 2 (Saturday - March 19) Players awoke to the news that Anderson was in the hospital after a successful surgery, but she would not be joining the squad on the trip for a few more days. The team took a sight seeing tour of downtown St. Louis which included a stop at the Gateway Arch. The wait proved to be too long for the team to travel to the top of the Arch, so players went out on their own for lunch before regrouping for a quick team photo in front of the Arch and Mississippi River.

After a short trip by the hospital to visit Ashley, the team moved on down Interstate 44 about 100 miles stopping for a practice at the University of Missouri-Rolla. The team then headed back down the road stopping for dinner just outside of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., before rolling into Springfield, Mo., at about 8:30 p.m.

DAY 3 (Sunday - March 20) Gonzaga returned to the road on Sunday morning as the Bulldogs took a trip to Branson, Mo., located in the Ozark Mountains and home to many country & western shows. The team spent a good portion of the day walking around the various outlet malls before ending the trip with a team race on the Go Cart track located on the Branson strip.

After the trip back to Springfield, Gonzaga finally entered the John Q. Hammons Student Center for its first practice at the site of Monday's game. The gym built in the late 1970's seats nearly 9,000 fans and serves as the home of the SMS basketball, volleyball and swimming teams.

DAY 4 (Monday - March 21) The Bulldogs welcomed back Ashley Anderson to the team after she drove down on Monday morning with assistant coach Triana Allen and assistant AD Heather Gores. The group met up with the team during the shoot around. The team followed with a pre-game meal before getting some final rest before heading the Hammons Center for tonight's WNIT game.

Should the Bulldogs win they will continue their road trip heading south to play the winner of the Texas A&M & Texas A&M Corpus Christi game with the third round game most likely set for Thursday night. If the Bulldogs win and continue their trip check back on GoZags.com for the next installment of life on the road in the WNIT.