UR fans ready to travel

Four University of Richmond students will take their love for Spiders' football on the road.

Three plan to leave campus following exams tomorrow morning, drive to Ohio and pick up a fourth who completed his exams earlier, then proceed to Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Spiders play at Northern Iowa on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the FCS semifinals.

One of the students, Barrett Neale, is the sports editor of the Collegian, UR's newspaper. The junior from Baltimore will file a story from the game for the Collegian's Web site, though Neale emphasized that her decision to make the challenging trip was based on her strong support for the Spiders and not newspaper obligations.

The trip to Cedar Falls will take approximately 18 hours, if all goes well. Neale has some snow-related concerns.

Duncan Phillips already is home in Toledo, Ohio. Neale will drive about nine hours from UR to Toledo with Emily Baltz and Reilly Moore, stay tomorrow night at Phillips' home, then get up early Saturday to begin the nine-hour drive to UNI.

Asked how the group intends to spend the road time, Neale mentioned music, then added "we're all pretty good friends, so we'll be talking a lot."

If the Spiders advance to the championship game next Friday in Chattanooga, Tenn., Neale's presence is a guarantee, she said.

- John O'Connor