TEMPE, Ariz. -- When the Arizona State University hockey team boarded an American Airlines flight in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday for the three-hour and 47-minute trip back to Phoenix, they finally went home.
It had been a while since they were last in Arizona.
Saturday's flight was the last leg of a 36-day road trip that started in Michigan on Nov. 13, covered 1,517 miles through the Midwest (in addition to 3,341 miles via their flights to and from Arizona), and took the Sun Devils to six schools in five states. They essentially created their own bubble: living in hotels, having every meal prepared, getting COVID-19 tests every day, getting their laundry done for them and attending classes over Zoom.