ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell women's lacrosse team has never ducked the best competition, regularly playing more than half its schedule against top 20 programs. Starting Tuesday, the Big Red will take that to an extreme, heading to Europe to face some of the top competition in the world.

The Big Red lacrosse team will play a total of three games during a 10-day trip through Europe that begins on June 2. A game against one semi-professional team (HLL Rot-Weiss Munchen), as well as contests against the national teams of Austria and the Czech Republic in their final preparations for the 2009 FIL Women's World Cup beginning on June 17 in Prague, will highlight what will be an outstanding cultural and athletic exchange.

The group of players, coaches and an athletic trainer will depart from Boston, Mass., on Tuesday, June 2, and will arrive in Paris before taking a connecting flight to Munich. Two days in Munich, including its first game of the tour on Thursday, will be followed by a trip to Salzburg, Austria. The travel party will then visit Vienna on Saturday and Sunday with a game against the Austrian national team on the final day in town. On Monday, June 8, the team will visit Prague for an evening match against the Czech Republic squad. The following day, Cornell will tour the city, including a visit to the historic Konopiste Castle. The team will then spend Wednesday with a free day before heading back to the United States on Thursday, June 11. 

This isn't the first time head coach Jenny Graap has brought a team overseas. Cornell also visited London, England and Prague in 2005 and travelled to Prague and London in 2000. The Big Red has a 9-3 record against national competition, including winning the Prague Cup in 2000 with a perfect 6-0 record. 

NCAA rules limit member schools to one foreign trip every four years, and the experience is one that often pays big dividends. It has both times Cornell has travelled overseas. The 2001 team went 16-2, became the first Big Red women's team to reach an NCAA semifinal and set numerous school records. The 2006 club used its foreign trip to springboard to the program's first Ivy title en route to a 12-4 finish. The trips played a large part of the camaraderie and fostered teamwork that led to the success of both seasons.

During the trip, Cornell will have an opportunity to build on a 2009 campaign that saw the team show steady improvement. The Big Red went 9-7 (3-4 Ivy League) and will return eight starters for the upcoming 2010 campaign. Included among the returners are second-team All-America defender Tissy O'Connor and all-region attacker Libby Johnson. Cornell won four of its final seven games this past year, including a win over NCAA qualifier Vanderbilt and competitive losses to NCAA quarterfinalists Syracuse and Notre Dame. 

Cornell will play its first of three games on Thursday, June 4 when it plays HLL Rot – Weiss Munchen team at 7 p.m. local time.