Trip to Europe about more than just volleyball

Traveling to tournaments in not-so-exotic locales like Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Louisville is an accepted part of playing high-level club volleyball.

Teams go where the action is.

But a recent voyage taken by 10 local high school girls who play for the Club Fusion 18-Black team, several parent chaperones and coaches Eric Schulze and Lindsey Johnson (a former St. Edward player) made the usual club volleyball tour stops like Indy look like... well, Indy.

The girls from Fusion's top squad departed for Europe on March 20 to play eight matches in 11 days in four countries against some of the top competition in those countries. Their opponents ranged in age from 17 to 36-year-old semiprofessionals.

The Fusion 18-Black roster reads like a who's who of future NCAA Division-I talent: Burlington Central's Molly Turk (Northern Iowa), Meghan Zasada and junior Stephanie Holthus (Northwestern); junior Taylor Brauneis (Louisville) and Sondra Parys (Toledo) of Prairie Ridge; St. Edward's Kristen Haggenjos (Loyola-Chicago); Erin Johnson (Illinois) of Crystal Lake South; junior Julie Jeziorowski of Crystal Lake Central; Sycamore's Samantha Thrower (Indiana); and Freeport's Kelsey Hoefer (Towson).

The player's families were responsible for the cost of the trip. Multiple team members raised the necessary $2,500 with pledged support from family, friends and fans, an effort the other girls respected and appreciated since making the trip was not a team requirement.

The Americans learned plenty about the European style of ball-control volleyball while going 2-6 on the European tour.

"They don't make unforced errors," said Holthus, who visited Europe for the first time in December with the U.S. Volleyball junior team. "In America we're used to taking big swings and capitalizing on the opponents' mistakes. But they just don't make those same mistakes. The way they pass and control the ball is really amazing. They just don't make errors, which makes them hard to beat."

Said Haggenjos: "They're very smooth with how they play. They run a fast tempo, and they're very graceful. If they do make a mistake, they just move on right away. They don't have mental breakdowns."

Another difference was apparent in the first match in Italy. Playing on a court surrounded by metal bars 15 feet from the sidelines, Turk, a two-time Daily Herald all-area team honorary captain, suffered a concussion when she banged her head into one of the bars while chasing down a wayward pass. Woozy, she finished the final 2 points of the match but was sidelined for the rest of the trip.

"It was kind of a bummer," Turk said. "That was the only bad part of the trip. I thought I could get to it, but I kind of misjudged where the railing was and nailed my head on it. I was pretty out of it. I don't remember the last 2 points, and I went to the hospital."

After a day of sightseeing in Venice, Italy, the girls boarded a train for Innsbruck, Austria. From there they trained it to Munich, Germany for a one-day stay, which included a tour of the concentration camp at Dachau.

The group then made its way to Prague in the Czech Republic, where they played four games against the Czech Youth National team of 17-year-olds and then had a couple of idle days to see the sights. They walked the Charles Bridge, which was completed in the 15th century, dined on a buffet of Czech delicacies, and even stopped at Europe's largest dance club under strict, chaperoned supervision.

On a Sunday afternoon in Prague, Turk, Johnson, Hoefer and Haggenjos needed stamps for their postcards. They were given directions to a tobacco shop, where stamps are sold, and walked down an alley where a large wooden door led to the area of shops. However, no one was there, or so they thought.

"We're looking around and it's kind of empty and the stores are all closed, so we decided to go find another one," Turk said. "We go back out and the big wooden door wouldn't open. The four of us, me Kristen, Erin and Kelsey, are shaking the door and all the sudden we turn around and this man is yelling at us, saying, 'What are you doing in here?' And he was really creepy. Oh my gosh, we were so scared. I honestly thought we were done for.

"He's screaming at us and walking toward us, so we're all huddling together. Then Erin, the tallest out of us, said, 'Look, we just came in here to get stamps. The door was open.' So he told us it was closed and to get out, and he opened the door for us. But Erin was getting ready to kick some butt. She stuck up for us, and I sorta hid behind her. That was my favorite experience."

Talk about team bonding.

"Afterward we were talking about it, and I told everybody I was getting ready to kick his butt," Johnson confirmed.

With the volleyball portion of the trip over, the group spent the final day of the trip in Paris seeing the sights. They walked for eight hours, seeing the Louvre and Notre Dame, stopped in shops along the Champs-Elysees, visited the Arc de Triomphe and, finally, the Eiffel Tower, which dazzled with a light show at night.

The entire team climbed the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and gazed in awe at Paris.

"We were up there at sunset and it was just beautiful," Haggenjos said. "You could see the city for miles. It was just so amazing and pretty."

"I liked Paris the best," Johnson said. "It was so historical, and we just walked around all day. We had such a great view from the Arc. The entire city is just awesome. Everyone takes their time and stops for coffee on the side of the street. No one is in a rush." Turk, Zasada and Holthus said Prague was their favorite city on the tour.

Each of the girls expressed an appreciation for the opportunity to learn about other cultures and each other.

"It was really an unbelievable experience," Holthus said. "With a group of teenage girls, you'd would expect us to get sick of each other by the end of the trip, but we were still laughing and joking around by the time we had to leave. I can't wait to go back."

Holthus may get her wish. Next year's Fusion's trip is planned for Spain, Portugal and Greece, which sounds slightly more appealing than Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Louisville.

BEGIN_ATTRIBUTIONjfitzpatrick@dailyherald.comEND_ATTRIBUTION