No. 23 UNLV making most of trip to New York for the holidays
NEW YORK (AP) — UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque plans on taking her team on a destination trip each year right before the holidays because the Lady Rebels' home arena is being used for a rodeo.
Last season it was Hawaii, this year it's New York.
“Travel is such a huge part of the student-athlete experience and you know, New York City, it's such an iconic place,” La Rocque said. “You know people think we live in one in Vegas, and when you live there, you don't always get the mystique of it. It's fun to bring our team cross country and let them enjoy another major city that maybe they won't get to travel to on their own.”
No. 23 UNLV is making the most of its week-long trip east off the court. Besides playing games against Seton Hall and Fairleigh Dickinson, the team took in the sights while staying in New York. They went to “Hamilton” on Sunday and planned to visit the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center and Times Square later this week.
“It's exciting as a lot of us grew up on the west coast so to be on the east coast is really cool,” UNLV's Alyssa Brown said. “I've heard so much about the tree at Rockefeller. Some of my family lives out here and they are always hyping it up so I was like I got to see it.”
While most of her team hasn't been to New York before, La Rocque has been to city. Still she's excited as it's the first time she'll be here with her daughter Ellie, who turned one last month. Of course she's excited about the food and perhaps a chance to experience the subway, but there's one thing La Rocque has in mind to experience with her first child.
“We have to find Santa," she said holding Ellie in her arms after a loss to Seton Hall on Saturday. “We'll go to Macy's and see if he's there.”
There's a good shot that she'll find him there as not much has gone wrong for UNLV this year besides Saturday's defeat.
The Lady Rebels (9-1) were off to their best start since the 1990-91 team won its first 14 games. UNLV entered the rankings last Monday, marking the second consecutive season that the team has appeared in the Top 25. The team was ranked for the final five weeks last season — the first time UNLV had made the Top 25 since 1994.
Odds are they will fall out on Monday after the 30-point loss to Seton Hall. It didn't seem to dampen the spirits of La Rocque.
“It's ok, we wanted to challenge ourselves and we came away with good wins over Oklahoma and Arizona,” she said. “Now we'll start getting ready for conference play.”
___
AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
