The women’s basketball team is going to Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 18, where they will be participating in a weekend of basketball at Rhodes College.
The team will be leaving from Carver around 12:30 p.m. to start their eight hour bus ride to Tennessee.  They will practice at Rhodes College in the morning, and then later that evening, they will play their first game against Rhodes College.  The team will have one more game against Centre College, out of Danville, Ky.
“I want the team to play well on the court, and I hope we can get two more wins, but the trip is about more than being on the court; it’s also about bonding off the court,” said head coach Mark Beinborn.
First-year Victoria Allen is hoping that the team will really come together as a whole during this trip. This is going to be Allen’s first trip with the team.
“I am really hoping that the team comes together, and I get the chance to get to know the upper classmen even better,” said Allen. “We will have an eight hour bus ride and a lot of free time at the hotel to get to know each other.”
Beinborn has been pushing the idea of the team being a family for over two years now, and he feels that this year the girls started to buy into that idea.
“This team is already extremely close, and they stay connected off the court,” said Beinborn.
Beinborn has played on multiple different teams, and he feels the most successful teams were the ones that had the best communication.
“Being connected allows the team to communicate better, push each other without getting angry, and also take the blame for each other when it is needed,” Beinborn said.
Senior and captain Valerie VanRoeyen has been on three different team trips since her first year, and wants to use this trip to get to know everyone on the team. VanRoeyen is going to push that the hotel rooms get split up so that some girls who don’t know each other as well can start to bond.
“From my previous experience on trips to Colorado and St. Louis, the team has bonded over things as simple as getting coffee and breakfast in the morning,” said VanRoeyen.
VanRoeyen has never been to Tennessee before, and she is hoping to have the opportunity to go to the civil rights museum.
The second captain on this team is Andrea McNally, and she thinks that the timing for this trip is perfect.  She has the same beliefs as coach Beinborn and feels the team will be more successful, if they are bonded.
“After this trip we will soon start conference play, and those are the games that really matter,” said McNally. “If we become more bonded on this trip, that will carry over to our communication on the court and should really help us when we start playing conference games.”
McNally is convinced that the team has what it takes to make it to the conference tournament at the end of the year.
To make it to the tournament the team must have one of the top four conference records, and it is essential they are at the top of their game when conference play begins; so, the team’s trip to Tennessee could not have come at a better time.