Student-Athlete Blog: Niski Home from European Global Challenge

James Madison volleyball student-athlete Meghan Niski recently competed with the BIP Midwest U-22 squad as part of the 10th Annual European Global Challenge. The team returned to the United States this past weekend after a successful overseas experience. Read more from Niski's personal reflections of the trip.

From Meghan Niski:

After playing a couple more European teams, our team landed in a challenge match on Tuesday night. We had to win this match in order to make the top eight of the U22 bracket and make a run for the championship. The playoffs consisted of the winner of three our of five games, just like college matches here in the U.S. We beat Falconara, a very talented club team from Italy, in five sets to make it to the quarterfinals the next day.

Wednesday morning, we took a trip to the coliseum in Pula for some sightseeing before our match. What a beautiful city! For the quarterfinal match, we were matched up against the second-ranked USA collegiate national team. With girls from the University of Texas volleyball, they were heavily favored over us. After a really intense match, we ended up taking the match, beating them 3-1!

That night, we were lined up against the USA collegiate national team in the semifinal match. They beat us in three sets. Even though it wasn't the best match, it was still a great experience to play against some of the best players in the country. After a tough loss, we were still really proud of our accomplishment that morning and the fact that we made it that far in the tournament!

Thursday morning, we took a trip to Kamenjak, right near Pula, with some of the other USA teams. The beaches and cliffs there were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen! After coming back from that morning trip, we played our third-place match against Mountain West, a U.S. collegiate team with all-stars from that conference out of the west coast. With time schedules and being a consolation game, the match was only best of three sets, and we lost 2-1.

I really learned some valuable experiences playing against the international teams as far as the volleyball skills go. The international teams that we played had such great defense that nothing seemed to score for our team at first. Hitters in the United States are great for taking shots when they hit, whether it's a roll shot in the middle of the court, a tip short over the block, or a push to the back corner. The defense on the other side seemed to pick up everything we were throwing at them. In order to win, we had to start using their blockers and hitting off of them, as well as hitting high over their hands into empty parts of the court. Different techniques like this will come in handy when we start to play in the fall.

One thing that I also noticed is that the international teams have to take more value in ball control with their front row players. International rules have less substitutions allowed. Here in the United States, we can have tall players in the front row who are great at hitting, but can have a defensive player substitute into the game for them in the back row. European teams don't really have that option because of the sub rule. This is another reason why their defense is so great.

The last lesson that I learned from this trip is how important team chemistry is for the sport of volleyball. Even though our team had only played with each other a few hours before the tournament started, our passion, hard work and quick friendships developed us into a team that placed much higher than anticipated in the tournament.

Taking fourth place in a prestigious tournament is a great feeling coming out of the trip! It was such a great experience playing against high-end teams, learning a new European style of volleyball as well as playing competitive U.S teams. I've learned so much from this tournament, as well as enjoyed traveling and seeing some of the most beautiful places in the world. This includes Venice, where we drove to Friday morning and spent the last day there.

I can't wait to get back to JMU soon and start preseason, go Dukes!!

Calendar