BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team will play a series of three exhibition games during an eight-day stay in Costa Rica from August 8-16.

The Titans will face two teams from the San José area (August 9 and 15) and one from Liberia (August 13).

Illinois Wesleyan senior center Nick Anderson will be providing updates throughout the trip at this link.

In addition to the basketball games while in Costa Rica the team members will have a chance to go on a zipline canopy excursion, visit the Poas Volcano and Arenal Volcano National Park, and tour Guanacaste and Ostional Beach. The complete (tentative) itinerary of the Titans' trip is available here.

"This trip will be valuable for our team chemistry and to get an early start and feel for competition in preparation for the upcoming season," said IWU head coach Ron Rose. "The opportunity for our players to travel together and have these shared experiences is a wonderful part of their college career in addition to getting an off-season focus on basketball."

Along with Anderson, the players who will be on the trip are Randy Azuogu, Victor Davis, Bryce Dolan, Eric Dortch, Brandon Heyen, Rob Mahlke, Mike Marietti, Michael Mayberger, Brian Nelms, Dylan Overstreet, Joel Pennington, Danny Roadman, Pat Sodemann, Andrew Ziemnik and Brady Zimmer.

Illinois Wesleyan is allowed additional practice sessions in preparation for the Costa Rica trip that do not count against their preseason practice dates. The Titans play an exhibition game at Division II Winona State in Winona, Minn., on Nov. 2 and open the regular season with a home game against Manchester at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15 in the IWU Tip-Off Tournament.

Click here for the 2013-14 IWU men's basketball schedule.

IWU men's basketball teams have traveled internationally previously in August 2010 (Italy) and in August 2005 (Costa Rica).

Illinois Wesleyan football teams have traveled to meet European teams on five occasions (Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Finland), the Titan women's soccer program has competed in Europe three times and the men's soccer team played in Costa Rica last August.