Women’s basketball team competes and tours in France and Portugal

Once every four years, McDaniel’s women’s basketball team packs their bags and boards a flight across the Atlantic to compete on international courts and immerse for 10 days in cultures similar yet different from their own.

The trip in June marked the seventh time in program history that coach Becky Martin has led her team to Europe and the first time the trip included Portugal. The group of 29 student athletes and chaperones took in all the expected sights — Paris, Normandy, Bayeux, Mont St. Michel, the beach at Cascais and Cabo de Roca, the western most point of continental Europe.

Still, as magnificent and awesome as these landmarks are, nothing compared for the team members to sharing it all with teammates.

“All the photos we took couldn’t capture how truly amazing it was to be there, living it with my teammates, with all of the moments and laughs we shared,” says Anna Mondoro, a sophomore from Dumfries, Va. “That is what I’m going to remember years down the road.

“It was an awesome trip with awesome people — and it doesn’t get any better than that.”

It’s no surprise that that’s exactly why Martin makes sure that every team member has the opportunity once during their college career to travel together overseas not only to compete internationally but to explore and gain appreciation for other cultures. The team played two contests in Douvres, France, and gathered friends wherever they went.

“One of my favorite parts of the trip was when we made friends with local people in Cascais, Portugal, and played beach volleyball with them at night,” says Jasmine Smith, a senior Biology major from Baltimore. “The number one takeaway for me was experiencing other cultures. Eating different foods, talking with the people and experiencing life in Portugal and France was truly amazing.”

Picture postcards from the trip tell the story better than words: