Women's Basketball Completes European Tour

RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team has finally returned home after 10 longs days in Europe during which the team had to opportunity to visit France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The team played three games against Belgian club teams, posting a 2-1 record.

Throughout the trip, Olivia Healy chronicled the journey in a blog that gave fans a view through the player's eyes. The final three entries can be found below giving insight about trips to Amsterdam, Bruges, an orphanage and the final two games.

Full photo galleries from the trip and a video recap will be available in the coming days. The team would like to thank all of those who made this trip a possibility and are looking forward to getting the season started.

Monday Aug. 10, 2015It's Amsterdam Day!

It was a long drive to Amsterdam, but that really didn't matter because everyone on the bus slept the whole two hours anyway.

First on our to-do list f or the day was to go on Mike's Bike Tour with Mike himself. Our program split into two groups and were given a colorful bike that already a name chicken scratched on it like; Red Devil, Bob, Brett-Brett, Milo and so on.

The start of the ride was rough. Our Director of Basketball Operations, Crystal Williams, found herself struggling to get through the first stretch of our tour, but soon enough we were able to cruise along the canals.

We rode through the busy intersections, by the oldest churches, through the red light district, by the Anne Frank house and passed the bench that was featured in the film, The Fault in Our Stars.

"On one hand, it was nerve wracking because of all the hustle and bustle of the city," freshman Salita Greene said. "But on the other hand, it was one of the most exciting parts of the trip."

I even admitted that I could not stop smiling throughout the entire excursion.

After the tour we posed for a team picture in front of the "IAmsterdam" structure around the local park.

Our free time today was spent shopping, watching street performers and buying Holland's #1 Fries. We went on another boat trip through the canal to get a different view of Amsterdam.

Following the canal cruise, we had a team dinner at a tasty local restaurant for soup and choice of chicken or fish with a creamy mushroom sauce. We finished of a great day with a vanilla sundae dessert.

Tuesday Aug. 11, 2015Finally we had a late wake-up call!

Instead of heading to Brussels, our team was abel to get some rest and head straight to Bruges, Belgium.

On the two-hour bus ride to Bruges, we of course went through another round of charades. Little did we know that Coach Shafer's fiancé Denise, already had prepared a list of words that she promised Coach Shafer had not seen.

This game was intense. We had levels of difficulty as the game went on. It was a perfect way to keep the game moving and to k eep any team from playing words like thermal combustion.

The coaches won this round, but we are preparing for an epic comeback with different strategies.

When we arrived in the small city of Bruges, we maneuvered our way through the small and historic town until we reached the market square. A local tour guide guided us around the city.

An amazing fact about the city is that there are about five million visitors each year! We wandered over bridges, though churches and into gardens.

It was a beautiful site with swans swimming in a variety of the ponds. Our manager Robert got a picture with one of them but refused to get too close while Coach Shafer opted out of the photo this time around.

We left the city with lace, chocolate, full stomachs and moderately tired legs.

Our match was about an hour drive away from Bruges, and immediately we realized that our competition looked stronger and older than the last club team we played.

We struggled ear ly on, but the second half was our to take. Janelle Hubbard and Lauren Tolson knocked down some three pointers while Salita Greene and Bria Powell beasted on the boards.

Heading into the last four minutes, we had the lead but nothing seemed definite. Sophomore guard Micaela Parson hit two crucial foul shots that the other team could not respond to.

We won the game and exchanged gifts with our opponents before taking a group picture.

It was a late night on the bus as we got back to our hotel around 1:30 a.m.

Wednesday Aug. 13, 2015It was a relaxing day in Valkenburg. We packed our bags and roamed around the city before visiting an orphanage.

We were able to sit down with some girls and just get to know them and talk to them about their goals and futures. They were really sweet! After two hours of getting to know them we took a group photo and gave them shirts, basketballs and such.

When it was time to head to the game, we picked all of the girls up and there they were, representing our team in their new Richmond women's basketball shirts. They absolutely loved them. It was great to see smiles on their faces, whether they spoke English or not, we were all happy to be around each other.

Despite the result of the game, it was great having them there.

On the bus ride back, we learned some Dutch. It was really difficult, but while they taught us Dutch a few girls learned some English phrases such as; dog, cat, you are my friend, basketball, etc.

Early Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed about an hour and once in the air, it took us about eight and a half hours to get to Washington, D.C.

The trip presented our team with challenges, experiences and journeys of a lifetime. We grew close and strong on and off the court like Coach Shafer said when we reached campus, we really did build something special already coming into this school year that we want to keep going.

We are very thankful for the opportunity we were given and we hoped you enjoyed our blog!

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