March 2, 2007

Villanova, Pa. -

By: Carolyn Brown

I guess you could say we have fully recovered from the stressful situation we found ourselves in last weekend. Getting stuck in Florida for an extra two days was not on the agenda right before mid-term week. We all found ourselves frantically e-mailing teachers trying to figure out when we would have time--in the day and a half of school we would be attending for the week--to take their mid-terms. But, with mid-terms done (for the most part), we can confidently say we are ready for the upcoming weekend. Bags packed and the bus ready, we depart from Villanova at 3:00 p.m. for the Philadelphia Airport.

Who would have guessed the stress would have begun at the outside check-in of the U.S. Airways terminal. I mean, we are on Spring Break, it's not supposed to be stressful. The Florida sun is so close, yet so far, especially with a ticket reservation for Natalie Hord missing. That, plus baggage problems because we have two Hords (Natalie and Megan) on the team, one without a reservation and one with four checked bags, which of course is against U.S. Airway's rules, the problems seem to be adding up. The first question is, what do we do about Natalie Hord? With calls into Villanova and a missing travel agent, we scrambled to buy Natalie a one-way flight to Florida on Southwest Airlines. As for the bags and the money for her ticket they were asking for? One bag got through with no problem, however, we had to fork over the extra money for the sock net because it doesn't really qualify as a carry on item (which wouldn't have been a problem if Natalie would have been on our flight from the start).

Problems solved, we head to security to catch up with the rest of the team. Who knew the line was going to be a half-hour long. Even though the line was so long, a few of us made out with some brand new Burt's Bees products that were thrown out because the original owner didn't have a zip-lock baggie to put them in. Thank goodness for our prepared manager, Allison Venella, and our eager teammate, Lauren Peterson, or we would have had to walk away from some of the most pleasurable body products known to man. Many of you reading this might think this a little odd that we would rummage through the liquid bin containing discarded items, but it was brand new Burt's Bees! How can you pass that up? Coach Maria actually asked us if we were Italians after we went rummaging, and proceeded to divvy up the newfound loot.

It is now 5:02 and our flight is scheduled to depart at 5:45 p.m. With only dinner in mind at this point, I knew I needed a sandwich before I got on that plane, or I was not going to make it. As a few of us leisurely walk around the airport to find something good, many hitting the homemade chocolate store, we make our way to Au Bon Pain. I order a sandwich, thinking this is an easy enough purchase. However, 20 minutes later, I start receiving phone calls from about every teammate at the gate as the plane is beginning to board. But there is still no sandwich to be accounted for. The Au Bon Pain sandwich connoisseur hooks me up with my order as we run as fast as we can to our departing plane. We, of course, make it as there was really nothing to worry about because there were still about 25 people still waiting to board.

Now sitting on the plane, stress free, I can honestly say that Villanova is ready for another weekend in Florida. Stemming off of our first five wins of the season, with an undefeated record, we could not be happier. We are really pumped to have a fun and successful weekend, and Eastern Michigan, Stetson, University of Central Florida and Southern Alabama better be prepared for a confident, ready-to-win Villanova Softball team.

We land in Florida tonight at 8:00 p.m. where we will gather our luggage and head to our hotel in Altamonte Springs. Looking to focus on one game at a time, Eastern Michigan will be our first opponent on Friday at 3:00 p.m. (ET).

Here we go Wildcats!