BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's basketball team will be heading to Spain and Portugal on Tuesday May 20 for 10 days of sightseeing and international games. A travel party of 17 will depart from Newark Airport for an overnight flight to Lisbon, before heading straight to Madrid.
This will be Head Coach Mary Beth Spirk's fourth European trip she has taken with a Lady Greyhound team.
"International travel is a rewarding and often a life changing trip for each member of the team and travel party," stated Spirk. "Sports Tours International, who has arranged the trip, has done an excellent job in organizing the best possible experience for our team. It will be exciting from a competition prospective as we will find out who is going to step up after losing our 5 starters from last year's team. We will find out quickly what we need to work on, and hopefully will grow together as a team. We will certainly have stories to tell upon our return."
The team will be maintaining a blog during the entire trip: http://mocoportugal.blogspot.com
While in Madrid the team will have a bus tour of the city; explore Plaza Mayor and the Puerto De Sol; ride the El TeleFerico Cable Car and visit the Prado Museum. On May 22, the Lady Greyhounds will take on CB Alcobendas in their first international game of the trip. They will have a day trip to the Imperial City of Toledo and finish up their time in Madrid with a shopping trip to the El Rastro Flea Market.
On May 25 the group will make its way to Portugal to our hotel in the seaside town of Cascais on the outskirts of Lisbon. While in Lisbon we will take on Sport Alges E. Dafundo and CRC Quinta Dos Lombos. A city tour of Lisbon is also on the itinerary as is a sailing tour of the "Old City". The trip wraps up on the group's last full day in Lisbon by visiting the Parque Das Nacoes and the aquarium.
Follow along with the blog as well as the women's basketball team's other social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The NCAA allows schools to travel internationally once every three years outside of the traditional season to play games in other countries. The Greyhounds traveled to the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany in 2011 on their last trip. Moravian's other international trips have taken the women's basketball team to Italy in 2008 and Ireland in 2005.
