At the beginning of May, the Penn State women’s volleyball team headed off to Brazil for their summer foreign tour in the country. The tour lasted 12 days from May 4-16 with the team traveling to Sao Paolo and Rio de Janiero to play various teams throughout their travels. This is the fifth international trip that a Penn State women’s team has taken.
The team documented their trip through a series of blog posts that were uploaded onto the school’s athletics page, written by different players each day.
On Day one of the trip, Lainy Pierce wrote about their travels from the states to the South American country. The nine-hour airplane trip was a long flight for the players, but spirits were high once they landed in Sao Paulo.
On day two of the trip, the squad took on Sao Caetano, a club team in Brazil. The two teams played four sets, with Penn State coming out on top in all – 25-10, 25-16, 25-8, 25-10. The third and fourth days of their trip was full of museums and touristy attractions, a step away from the volleyball court to learn about Brazilian culture.
The fifth day of the trip included the team heading back to the court to show off their skills in front of 60 middle-school and high shool aged children, all of which spoke Portuguese. This did not matter, as the children were all excited to play alongside the Penn State squad. Following the hour-long session with the children, the team took on Sesi Sao Paulo, winning the first and third sets of the three set match. The sixth day of the trip featured the final match the team would play in Sao Paulo against Sao Cristovao, where the Nittany Lions were able to win all four sets.
Skipping through another touristy day seven, with the team now in Buzios, the team took on the Brazilian Junior National Team on day eight of their trip. On day nine, the team went back to take on the Brazilian Junior National Team once again.
Day 10 featured another touristy day, climbing mountains before heading to the beach on Day 11 to play in a beach volleyball tournament with themselves.
Day 12, their final day in Brazil, began with a beach training session with the Brazilian beach coach.
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