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Summary of the Trip
By Lauren Gibbemeyer – Committed to University of Minnesota
and Brook Dieter – Committed to University of Minnesota
After playing the German youth national team in Munster we noticed that they had a whole different style of play then what we were used to. When walking into the gym, right away we observed a whole new environment. The floors were cluttered with many different lines, the balls were harder than normal, and the gym was without the ever needed air conditioning. Once we got over the new surroundings, we were ready to start our warm ups. In Europe, the warm ups last longer than the actual match, in which it’s shared hitting and serving.
While the game was being played there were constant chants being done by the team on the other side of the court. The girls showed an immense amount of concentration; an area in which we lacked at times. One main difference in their style of play was they ran a slower tempo in the middle and excluded slides altogether. In their game all players must play all around, because of the substitution rule which states that you are granted only one sub per player.
After this amazing experience we realized how fortunate we were to have the chance to play one of the top teams in the world at our age level. By participating in a new level of play, we have learned to love volleyball even more by realizing that there is more in store for us in our future years in college.
Brook Dieter
Lauren Gibbemeyer
Summary of the Trip
By Maggie McNamara- Committed to Concordia University-St. Paul
and
Abby Syverson- Committed to George Washington University
U17’s Team, but now U18’s Team
While we were in Europe we played the youth national teams from Germany and Austria. We also played some club teams from Maribor ( Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The volleyball we played here had a different style than in the U.S. By playing this type of volleyball it will give us more experience to enter the college level of play.
There were many ways in which European volleyball was different than the United States volleyball. The first thing that we noticed was the fact that the balls had a different construction. This made them feels like they were heavier and more inflated. We noticed that the style of play was faster. Also, the teams had really good defense and tough serves. Nearly all of the players played all the way around. This helps with the fact that they are only allowed six substitutions. One thing that took time to get used to was hearing all the teams cheering and clapping after every point in the match.
In college we expect the play to be more difficult and at a faster tempo, like the Europeans. Learning to adjust to a different style will help us when we have to play different types of teams in college.
Maggie McNamara
Abby Syverson
Summary of the Trip
By Curt Glesmann
Club Director
This has been an absolutely fabulous trip for Northern Lights.
The experiences these girls have had will be with them for a lifetime. Not many people get the chance to play against the German Youth National team, or the Austrian Youth National teams and then go have dinner with them and swap stories and shirts. It just doesn’t get much better.
Besides seeing some of the normal sights, we have all seen parts of Europe not seen by your normal tours. I can’t say enough about how well Cory Solmon and Bring It USA did in organizing and executing the tour. I never had any concerns about what we were doing, where were going, or what we were eating. Bring It USA has put together the perfect combination of sightseeing and good volleyball.
The players have left Europe learning more about volleyball and life in general than most people will learn in lifetime. Our girls now know they can play with and against some of the best in the world and not be intimidated by it. They have learned how to navigate the streets of Europe, getting to places on time and having to communicate in different languages and cultures.
For me, I was like a father watching his daughters grow up and learn new things. I was extremely proud at how they acted and interacted with the other people they met on the trip. I hope that Northern Lights can continue to take teams to other parts of the world in the future.
Curt Glesmann
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