Alabama Volleyball Traveling to Europe
5/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Alabama volleyball team is set to leave Saturday morning for the trip of a lifetime. The Crimson Tide will embark on a 10-day, three country tour of Europe. Alabama will play five matches while traveling through Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
The trip allows the Tide to get in extra practice time that they normally would not have as well as gain valuable experience playing on the road. NCAA rules allow teams to travel abroad once every four years.
“The most exciting part of the whole trip is that we get to play volleyball longer than anyone else in the country,” Alabama head coach Judy Green said. “We’ll get additional experience by playing against great international competition.”
“One of the things we learned from our great season last year is that we need to improve how we play on the road,” Green said. “This trip will teach us how to adapt to different environments, which is something we need to be better at.”
The Tide will compete against the Hungarian Junior National Team, BSE Budapest, the Slovenian Youth National Team, Ok Brno and either Olymp Praha or Olymp Slavia which will provide the Tide a variety of competition.
“The competition will vary from country to country. We want to play our style and impose that style on the other team. We don’t want them to force us into playing their way. For the most part, European teams are error free. They try to put that on you, force you into mistakes. We for sure will be playing good ball control teams who will be looking at the matches as an opportunity to get better and improve and that is certainly the way we are approaching them as well.”
Alabama setter Brigitte Slack is the only Tide player with international experience. The junior-to-be traveled to Argentina last summer as a member of a U.S. Junior Team. Green feels that Slack will be able to help her teammates know what to expect both before and after the matches.
“One thing that Brigitte can share is how things work both before the match and after the match,” Green said. “She can let her teammates know what to expect. After the match the teams have dinner together and socialize and it’s more of a celebration of the match.”
The newest member of Alabama’s coaching staff, Jill Kramer, will also be on the trip. It will be the first time Kramer, who was hired less than a week ago, will be able to spend a lot of time around her new team.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” Green said. “I don’t know too many assistant coaches who are on the job for two days and then get to go to Europe for 10 days. It will be a great opportunity for her to get to know the team especially the chance to learn the position players she will be coaching that otherwise she wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn about until August.”
In addition to playing matches, the Tide will be able to do a fair amount of sightseeing, visiting historic places in Prague and Budapest as well as visiting the Bouzov Castle in the Czech Republic.
Green hopes that in addition to experience on the court that her team will gain, that the squad develops a better appreciation for how lucky they are to live in the United States, as well as build a stronger team bond.
“They’ll learn a greater appreciation for being a U.S. citizen and for the opportunities that we have in our country,” Green said. “I hope they’ll have a greater appreciation for what they have at home.”
“This is an absolutely incredible team experience to be able to immerse ourselves in different cultures, to see things that we haven’t seen before and to meet people from other countries,” Green said. “The trip can only strengthen the team bond.”
The Tide will return from the trip on May 31.
