Coach Hilbert weighing in...

We are at the halfway point in our tour and we had a great day. I will go into detail in a moment.

Our first match was really scary, jetlagged and "tourist tired" we got smoked by an Italian B1 team last Tuesday and I was afraid it was going to be a long 11 days. But our team has bounced back. They have their legs under them and have figured out how to serve and pass. Today we won our third match in a row, beating a local Pula, Croatia team 3-1. We had a great day from Kate Steffan who shut down our opponents best player, which we later found out plays in the top Italian league.

It was one of the best matches we have played with this group and I am very excited. So really great things are coming to the surface of this team and it's great to see. The match however wasn't the only high point of my day.

Earlier in the afternoon, Boris, the local club coach, brought a good friend of his to meet us. In walked Nikolai Karpol, the famous Russian coach, and one of the world's most legendary coaches. We had a team photo taken with him and then a group of us sat, drank coffee, and had a translated discussion about volleyball, politics and Pula, Croatia - a place where he owns a vacation home.

It was surreal to me. I've known about Karpol since I started coaching 25 years ago. He just turned 70 and completed his 50th year of coaching. He has won 2 Olympic Gold Medals and numerous other international titles. I felt honored to be there.

CSU Women's Volleyball Team & staff poses wtih Nikolai Karpol (center in tan shirt)

It was a great day...

Tom Hilbert

Day 4 - Ljubljana, Slovenia

At the top of the Ljubljana Castle

Greetings!

It's day four and the sun is still shining! It's hot and humid and febreze is no longer used just for clothing. Despite our "hot" bodies, our spirits are still high and the sights and architecture of Ljubljana, Slovenia are still breathtaking.

We ate "kebabs" for lunch - but they aren't the kind of kebab you are thinking of or the kind that we were expecting. They were similar to a sandwich or falafel - lots of veggies, chicken or beef and sauce. While they were difficult to eat - they were very good!

Eating Slovenian kebabs

The most breathtaking sight we saw today was the Ljubljana castle. After riding a cable car up to the top of the mountain, we toured around the castle and checked out the amazing views, museums, chapel and big tower.

After the castle, we had some time to explore the city. In the city square, there were a lot of places to shop, unique restaurants to eat, and of course, there's always ice cream! We shopped until we dropped then we headed back to our hostel to get ready for our game against the Slovenian Junior National team.

The team made us feel very welcome - they displayed a US flag and played our National Anthem before the match, which we won in 3 close games. Afterwards we gave each of the Slovenian players a CSU jersey which they were pretty excited about.

CSU and the Slovenian Youth National Team

Then we all went out together for pizza - which as one of the Slovenian coaches said was "so big, it'll give you a stroke" - and he was right!

GIANT pizza!

You may recognize former Ram Katherine Whitney in some of these pictures - she has been touring Europe since her season with a Croatian professional team ended a couple months ago and she joined us in Ljubljana.

Back to the hostel for our last night in Slovenia - tomorrow we head to Croatia.

Kate Steffan

Day 3 - Slovenia

Voščilo, pozdrav (greetings)!

TODAY was a great day. But what might you ask did we do that made it so great? Well...let me tell you. After getting to sleep in for the first time on the trip, we ate breakfast and loaded into vans tostart our journey across the countryside of Europe to Slovenia. We first stopped at the small town of Kocevje to practice alongside the Slovenian Youth National Team and then play them that night. Our practice was at the local elementary school - where we were greeted by very excited school children. At the beginning of practice we each partnered up with one of the Slovenian players and followed their team warm-up. Then Tom led both teams through practice - even though we speak different languages, we quickly learned that volleyball is universal and it was neat to practice side by side as one team!

Practicing with the Slovenian Youth National Team

After practice, we went into town to eat a traditional Slovenian meal of turkey and potatoes. During lunch we enjoyed learning Slovenian words, learning about their country and talking about everyone's favorite movies. After lunch, we enjoy coffee drinks on a cafe patio before our match - apparently a very European thing to do! Then it was off to the match!

Enjoying coffee before our match

The match was much improved from last night and I am pleased to say that while the Slovenian Youth National Team won one game, your lady Rams came out on top 3-1.

One big happy team!

We finished the day with a pizza dinner with the young women and made the hour trip through the winding roads of the beautiful Slovenian country side to reach the Hostel in the center at Ljubljana where we will stay the night and write you again tomorrow.

Sweet dreams - much love - Go Rams!
Lahko noc (good night)!

Jacque Davisson

Day 2 - Sightseeing in Venice, Italy

CSU Volleyball team and staff at San Marco Basilica, Venice

Hello! What a trip this has been so far!

This morning, everyone woke up around 6:00am, ate breakfast, then took the train to go sightseeing in the beautiful city of Venice. The train ride took about an hour and a half - it was the first train ride some of the girls had ever been on. When we arrived, we split up into 3 groups and Tom sent us on a scavenger hunt around the city.

On the train to Venice

Each group had to get a photo of every item on the list including a gondola, water taxi, the fish market, Bridge of Sighs, a piece of murano glass, a Venitian mask, the Rialto Bridge, the Guggenheim museum, a church (not at St. Mark's square) plus a picture of the whole group drinking coffee at a cafe by the water. The city was amazing! At around 1:30 we all took a water taxi ride back to the train station from St. Mark's Square. Pretty much the whole team slept on the ride back to Pordenone!

Drinking Cappucino at a cafe

Looking good in Venetian masks!

Riding on the water taxi through the Grand Canal

At 5:30pm we left the hotel for our first match against San Dona, an Italian B1 club team. Unfortunately, it did not go our way. We ended up losing the match in 3 games. We must overcome factors such as fatigue and playing in a new environment in order to grow as a team and achieve our goals - I have no doubt we can do that!

Tomorrow we head to Ljubjlana, Slovenia to play against the Slovenian Youth National Team. we will have much more updates for you then!
Ciao for now!
Ashley

Posing like statues

Day 1 - Arrive in Venice

Hello from Italy!!!

We made it to Pordenone, Italy safe and sound ... although it took longer than expected. We departed from Fort Collins at 3:45am May 25th and we arrived in Philadelphia around noon where we had a 6 hour layover before our flight to Venice. As we were not allowed to sleep (in order to adjust our bodies to the time change), we played multiple games of UNO and ate as much American food as possible.

Hanging out at the Philadelphia airport

Fighting heavy eyes, we boarded our flight to Venice. Most of the team (except Tessa) slept the whole plane ride. When we woke up we were surprised to hear that due to patchy fog in Venice and a need to refuel, our flight would instead be landing in Milan in the fashion capital of the world. Oh the sites we saw while stuck in the plane on the runway in Milan for 3 hours!

Batty sleeping in the plane while we were grounded in Milan

Eventually we arrived in Venice around 1pm ... 4 hours later than expected. After a short ride to Pordenone, we checked into the hotel and showered, then spent a couple hours touring the small town enjoying some tasty Gelatto. Later that night we experienced our first practice in Europe - it was very HOT and MUGGY. And to saw we were sweating is a complete understatement.

Yummmmmmmm...gelatto!

We then grabbed dinner at local favorite Woody's Ristorante where we had french fries, cheese, pasta and pizza and FREE cake (we were celebrating Jesse's birthday). After our feast, we hurried back to the hotel where we barely got our shoes off before hitting the pillows around midnight.

Tomorrow we are spending the day in Venice to sightsee. Talk to you soon!

Ciao!

Katelin (Batty)

Europe Here We Come… Again

When I started working here at CSU in 1997 I was approached by a players parent and offered a financial significant gift. He asked what I thought would be a great use of the money and I told him I had always wanted to do a foreign tour with my team. That summer we visited Prague, Munich and Holland. It turned out to be one of the most memorable moments in the careers of those players and it was a great bonding experience to share the trip with each other.

I decided at that time that I would try and take a tour every four years knowing how valuable it was. We took another trip in 2004 and now we are days away from our next tour which starts on May 25th.

We will play seven matches in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland. We will sightsee and meet players from other countries and cultures. We will take seven players who have never traveled overseas. We have discussed our excitement our fears and our curiosities. Once again I think this trip will be a great bonding experience for all of our players and will help develop trust and intimacy between all of the CSU Ram Volleyballers.

You can follow our on line blog as we chronicle our tour on the web. Hopefully we will grow and develop as a team right before your eyes.

- Tom Hilbert

RamVolleyball.Colostate.edu