FORT COLLINS — The last week of school was stressful.
There were finals to finish for all the students at Colorado State University, and the organization skills were being tested when coupled with the act of packing up their belongings to move out of dorms and apartments and find new places to live or simply head home.
The Rams volleyball team was no different, but they all had additional packing on their lists. Some of their clothes and belongings had to be packed separately so they would be ready to board a plane on Wednesday and head to Europe for a few weeks.
Oh, the stress.
It was just one more thing to consider, not that they were complaining, and senior outside hitter Sanja Cizmic joked she couldn’t be mad about it, but rather she’d probably have to be nice to coach Tom Hilbert because of the trip.
“It’s really exciting just being able to play my old team and our national team, having my girls in my home town and meeting my family. It will be fun,” Cizmic said. “The day we go to Croatia, we’re meeting my family and they’ll take us out to dinner, and they’ll meet all the new girls.
“We knew we were going this year, and Tom was telling me how he wanted to go to Croatia and get the whole team to see where I grew up and played volleyball, so I was really excited.”
The NCAA allows teams to take trips overseas to play every four years, and Hilbert actually held off one season because of the makeup of his roster. The Rams left Wednesday and were set to land in Amsterdam on Thursday, beginning a 14-day journey that will have the team visiting and/or playing matches in the Netherlands, Croatia and Italy.
Naturally, the middle stop is key for Cizmic, as it will take her back to her hometown of Split, where the Rams will play against her former club team, as well as the national team.
She will go from an outside hitter to a tour guide who hits all the spots she knows outside the realms for a normal tourist. Since Hilbert announced the final travel plans, her teammates have been begging her to show her the “real” sites.
“I know that I’ve talked to her before about different things I want to see,” senior Jasmine Hanna said. “I actually found some pictures on Twitter or something on Twitter about favorite destinations and it had something about Split, Croatia. I sent her a picture off of Twitter and said, ‘Is this a real place, because I want to see it.’ It was a cute little back-alley walkway that had flowers overgrowing it. She said she’d take me there, and we’ve had conversations about a beach with a sandbar and it’s absolutely beautiful. She said we were going to that beach, so I think we’re all really excited.”
The team will also play volleyball there, and plenty of it, with matches every other night, starting with the day they land. They will play under European rules, which differ a bit, including a softer and lighter ball that will make passing more difficult, explained Cizmic, who will return to Europe later this summer as part of the Mountain West all-star team.
While that will be valuable for his team, Hilbert said the sport they play is actually not the main benefit derived from making the trip.
“I won’t say secondary, because I want them to take it seriously,” he said. “We’ll play seven matches in three countries, and it’s going to be very cool. It cultivates trust. It’s a team-bonding experience, and it gives you more competitive experience, but it’s really about them becoming a team.”
The squad is already close, so the opportunity to spend more time together is being viewed as a gift. Yet, Hanna said even though they know each other well, teammates can always know each other better.
In her mind, that’s especially true in regards to Cizmic.
“She’s so excited to show us all, and I think we’re all excited to just see her in her environment,” she said. “We’ll probably to be able to better understand where she’s coming from and understanding why she is the way she is by understanding where she’s from.”
Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard