July 23, 2014
The Northern Illinois University volleyball team has made a habit in recent years of sending players overseas. In fact, nine different Huskies have played internationally since 2005, competing in countries like China, Brazil and Italy.
Last week, sophomore Mary Grace Kelly became the 10th Huskie on that list when she competed in the 2014 European Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia, with Bring It Promotions' Adidas Midwest Team.
"(NIU head coach) Ray (Gooden) was the one who first offered the opportunity to me," Kelly said. "He was friends with the coach who coached me in our trip, Eric Schulze of Club Fusion. Ray kind of helped me get hooked up with him.
"I always thought it was the coolest thing when I saw Lauren (Zielinski) and Pookie (Alexis Gonzalez) go. I decided that it was something that I had wanted to do because I had never been out of the country before. I didn't go out and ask him, but it was more that they needed an outside."
Having never been overseas, though, the Strongsville, Ohio, native admitted that there were some nerves about flying to Europe. In fact, the experience nearly ended sooner than expected.
"I was nervous," she said. "It was a little bit of a thrill getting to the airport. I almost missed my flight."
In addition to working on her own game, Kelly set out to learn some lessons on international volleyball. Much like basketball, volleyball in Europe is played in a much different style in the United States. While the American game relies on speed and power, the European style takes a slower, more methodical approach that rewards precision passing and attacking.
"At some junior tournaments, we would play a team from Asia, but it was never fully adapting to their style of play," Kelly said about her previous experiences with international volleyball. "Going to Europe, their entire concept of volleyball is different. They like to set the ball high and set up their outsides all the time, so I thought it was cool to adjust to that.
"They even have a different ball than we use in America, so you have to be a lot more precise with it because it doesn't give as much."
The trip also gave Kelly the opportunity to compete with players from other colleges, as the roster also included Abby Gilleland from Mid-American Conference rival Ohio and Illinois State's Ashley Rosch, among others.
"It was cool to play with girls from other colleges because all of us got to bring our culture from our colleges together and make it work," Kelly said.
Despite needing to adjust to new teammates and an entirely different style of volleyball, Kelly excelled on the court for Adidas Midwest, posting wins against Italian club Falconara and BIP USA in pool play to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament. In addition, Kelly also garnered a spot on the all-tournament team.
"I was actually very, very surprised by that," she said. "We only had two practices before, so I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to adjust to the serve-receive and the game, but I was really surprised to see how well the team did under the circumstances."
Yet, the trip wasn't solely about volleyball, as the teams also got to do sightseeing in Croatia and Italy.
"We did so much sightseeing," Kelly said. "Almost every day, even when we were in the tournament, we got to save some time for sightseeing. We did cliff jumping, cave swimming, see the (ancient Roman) coliseums and went to Venice. It was cool."
With the experience behind her, Kelly picked up plenty of lessons that she can apply to the fast-approaching 2014 season.
"Just how to adapt to different styles of play because that's what the whole tournament was about, adapting to different people," she said. "We played some European teams and some American teams, so we had to switch back and forth. The European style also relates to some of the teams we'll play this year with the taller girls that like to get set a little higher and at a slower pace."
