May 25, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Graduation is Monday, which means summer vacation starts on Tuesday. For the Yale women's basketball team, that vacation begins a long way away from New Haven, as the team heads to Germany for a 10-day tour from May 29-June 7. The Bulldogs will play three games against local competition while seeing the sites of Munich, Leipzig and Berlin.

The journey starts in Munich, where the Bulldogs will experience the world-famous Hofbrauhaus. The team also visits Dachau, site of the notorious Nazi Concentration Camp and now a memorial, and Mozart's home city of Salzburg, Austria. Yale makes stops in Nuremberg and Leipzig before heading to the German capital of Berlin, where the infamous Wall came down in 1989. Among the landmarks that the Bulldogs will see in Berlin are the Brandenburg Gate, the Tiergarten and the Reichstag Building.

The NCAA allows teams to travel overseas once every four years. The last women's basketball trip was a 10-day tour of Australia in 2003.

The squad will practice for five days prior to the trip. Graduating seniors Erica Davis and Chinenye Okafor are making the trip and will get to play with their Yale teammates one final time.

All three games will be played under international rules, with the three-point line a foot further back and a trapezoid free throw lane.

A different member of the team will be providing a journal entry about her experiences every day during the trip on yalebulldogs.com.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity