Daamen Plays Two Tourneys in Europe
Junior Kirsten Daamen checks in with CCSUBlueDevils.com after trips to Hungary and Italy.
Central Connecticut junior Kirsten Daamen played in a pair of tournaments with the Dutch National Team over the last two weeks. The Blue Devil center traveled with her squad to Hungary and Italy.
May 29, 2012
I cannot believe I have been away for three weeks already! Hungary was great. It is very different from the other European countries I have visited. We stayed in the city of Miskolc and the hotel we stayed in was really nice. It was also within walking distance to the gym where we practiced and played our first game. Every day we ate lunch and dinner at a Belgian Café. All of the meals were delicious! After the first few meals we were given dessert, but then the coaches told the restaurant to stop giving us them. Of course, this was disappointing! We played our second game about 30 minutes away from the hotel.
We lost both of the games, 52-77, and, 59-73. However, in the second game, we played much better. The biggest difference is the shot clock, in Europe it is only 24 seconds. So there is not that much time to set up offense. On the last night we were in Hungary, we went to downtown Miskolc. We walked around a bit, ate gelato and went to an outside café. Overall Hungary was a great trip!
I was chosen to go on the next trip for a tournament in Pomezia, Italy, about 30 minutes from Rome. We were there for a total of four days and I just got back yesterday. The tournament consisted of three other national teams from Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. We played Greece on Friday night, but lost 45-48. I did see a familiar face on the Greece team, Artemis Spano who plays at Robert Morris. On Saturday night, we played Italy, who we also lost to by a score of 52-56. However, on Sunday night we defeated Bulgaria, 50-39, in our final game of the tournament. I have played a few minutes in each game so far.
We flew back to Belgium very early on Monday morning and drove back to the Netherlands. We have practice on Wednesday, have Thursday off, and then on June 1st and 2nd we will have two practice games against Puerto Rico in our home gym.
- Kirsten
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