March 13, 2008
BUENOS AIRES - The dance party continued onto Asia de Cuba, a disco-tech club, which opened at 1:00 a.m. After the late night, we slept in and had some free time to go shopping. We wandered to Santa Fe Street where there were tons of shops and a beautiful park to catch some last-minute rays. The relaxing morning of touring the city was followed by our departure in the afternoon for the Ciudad Club, about 45 minutes, in six taxis. We enjoyed lunch at the clubhouse and got to watch the Women's U-21 U.S.A. team play the U-21 Argentine team. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The Yale team dressed in red, white and blue to support our USA team. We had the opportunity to watch to amazing field hockey match, not only learning a lot from the players, but cheering for our country.
We had to leave the match at half time to meet the bus, which took us to our last field hockey game at the Banfield Club. The atmosphere was perfect; the sun was setting and the club looked beautiful. We were all inspired by the USA match, which was reflected by our first win! The two senior forwards, Cat Lindroth and Harriet Thayer, scored the first goal of the game, which was answered by Banfield a few minutes later. It went back and forth but Lesley Kiger and Laura Pierce scored two more goals to put us ahead, and we won 3-2. It was a great win; the seniors got to enjoy one last time playing with such a wonderful group of women.
After the game, we had what they call "the third half," the hospitality in the clubhouse. There we exchanged Yale t-shirts for their game jerseys. Banfield was very excited to have their new Yale gear as were we excited to sport our new jerseys. We got back to our hotel late, but took one last trip to our favorite ice cream store, Freddo. The coaches treated the team to dessert and we all sat by the water while we ate, reminiscing about the trip and enjoying the last night in Argentina. As we did some late-night packing the team was so grateful to have such a wonderful trip with a very special group of women. It was an opportunity of a lifetime for the 2007 Yale Field Hockey Team and a great beginning for 2008.