SAN ANTONIO — The passports are in and the hotels, buses, trains and flights are booked. The UTSA volleyball team is ready to embark on its first-ever overseas trip next week when it visits five cities in 10 days.
The NCAA passed a rule that allows teams to travel internationally once every four years and head coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff and her coaching staff have been itching to take the Roadrunners overseas since the bylaw was enacted.
Playing internationally will allow the team to have 10 extra days to train in preparation for the 2016 campaign. It also will allow the Roadrunners to experience different cultures, visit museums, learn the history of different countries and have a better appreciation of what the United States has to offer.
A huge thank you to our donors who helped us raise more than $60,000 to take the team on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. Our gratitude truly cannot be expressed. A private event will be held on Saturday as a send-off before the Roadrunners leave for Europe the next day.
We will keep you all updated throughout our trip and share the experiences when we get back.
Below is our travel schedule.
May 15: Board the plane to leave the United States.
May 16-18: Arrive in Belgrade, Serbia, and stay for three nights. The team will play two matches in Belgrade and have one day to explore the city, visit historical landmarks and try the local foods.
May 19: Hop on a bus to Zagreb, Croatia. We only will be in town one night, but there will be an opportunity to play one match and meet the families of Nela Jularic and Marijeta Runjic. This will be the first time their families will get the chance to watch them compete in person since they became Roadrunners.
May 20-22: Bus to Maribor, Slovenia. We get to stay in Slovenia for three nights. There will be two, maybe even three, matches against the Slovenian Junior National Team and the Austrian Senior Women's Team. We also will get to explore the city and country while we're there.
May 23: Bus to Venice, Italy. We only will be in Venice for a few hours, but while we're there, we'll get to see the different architecture and go on a museum tour.
May 23-24: Train to Milan, Italy. We'll stay in Milan for two nights. We play one match against an Italian Federation team and use the other day to explore.
May 25: Fly back to the United States.
You can follow our entire trip on the following social media channels:
Twitter: @UTSAVolleyball — this will be updated all day long! The @UTSAAthletics account will be retweeting but the primary Twitter account will be the volleyball handle.
Instagram: utsaathletics — we'll have 2-3 posts a day for you to see!
Snapchat: utsaathletics — this will be updated from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment everyone heads to bed. We'll have updates of flights, foods we get to try, match footage, museum tours, bloopers, family and fans traveling with the team and much more.
Facebook: UTSA Volleyball — our blog will be posted here and on goUTSA.com every other day. If Wi-fi allows, we will cover our matches while they are taking place on Facebook.
#birdsup
