By Dennis Punzel for VolleyballMag.com
Izzy Ashburn and Julia Orzol will never forget their first meeting.
It was in the summer of 2019 and Ashburn was an incoming freshman on the University of Wisconsin volleyball team, trying to get to know her new teammates and carve out a role on the team.
Orzol likewise was a new member of the Polish Junior National team, playing her first match against the Badgers in Maribor, Slovenia, one of the stops on Wisconsin’s European exhibition tour.
Orzol was playing the right side and on one of her first swings she sent the ball toward Ashburn, who was in as a defensive specialist.
The two were reminiscing about that play recently as the Badgers prepared for another European tour, a 12-day trip that begins Friday.
“You hit me in the face,” Ashburn recalled.
“That’s how true friendship starts,” Orzol replied.
That trip also was the start of a remarkable run for the Badgers, who would go on to win the first of four consecutive Big Ten Conference championships that fall and advance to the championship match of the NCAA tournament in the first of three consecutive trips to the natoinal semifinals.
Coach Kelly Sheffield is hoping that this year’s trip, which will take them to Istanbul, Türkiye; Venice and Milan, Italy; Maribor, Slovenia; and Zurich Switzerland, can help set the tone for another season of high expectations.
“There are so many benefits if you max it out,” said Sheffield, who is entering his 11th season as the Badgers coach. “The easy thing is the benefit of two weeks of practicing and two weeks of competing. We’ll get anywhere from five to seven matches in while we’re over there and that’s a really important time if you’re utilizing it correctly. There are opportunities for playing time and roles to expand.”
This time should be particularly beneficial to several players, including outside hitter Temi Thomas-Ailara, the Northwestern graduate transfer who just joined the team at the start of offseason workouts, outside hitter Sarah Franklin, who practiced but did not play in any spring matches, and outside hitter Ella Wrobel, who played sparingly as a freshman and sat out the spring season with an injury.
NCAA rules allow teams to take foreign trips every four years and Wisconsin is just one of a number of topflight programs that are taking advantage of that opportunity. Sheffield sees it as part of the Athletic Department’s investment in its volleyball…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…