Players Perspective

Abby Syverson
Amanda Polzin
Liz Leeds
Northern Lights U18’s

Overall our team had a great experience traveling in Italy.  We met fun people, saw beautiful sights, and played amazing volleyball.  We gained a lot of experience playing teams from all over the world, including Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, Serbia-Montenegro.  Even enjoying dinner with other teams gave us a new experience.  The only tough part about that was trying to communicate.  In general only one or two people per team spoke fluent English so everything needed to be translated through them.  We felt very welcome and supported by the teams; especially with a team we met from Rome.  We exchanged shirts and emails and they came to one of our games chanting “USA” and “lights, lights . . .” 
           
In terms of our team chemistry, we became even more comfortable with each other.  Even though we had our crabby moments, especially when we were all sick, our sense of humor was able to help us overcome our differences.   You might have thought we were a crazy team before but you should see us now.  Someone was always saying quotes from movies (Anchorman), listening to Laura’s speech, or laughing about some new inside joke.  That in itself was the best experience. 

There is one thing that we all agree about: after traveling around in Italy no one is looking forward to going back to school on Wednesday.