GAINESVILLE - One year after the outbreak of war forced the cancellation of its scheduled trip overseas, the Florida volleyball team leaves today for a 12-day European tour designed to enhance the team on and off the court.
The Gators will play professional and club teams from the Netherlands, Germany and France, hoping to hone their skills against top-level competition during a time generally spent practicing against each other or college teams.
This is the second time Florida coach Mary Wise has taken a team to Europe to face older, professional players on the European circuit.
"I think you can look at that '97 team beating Wisconsin at Wisconsin in the regional final and it was directly attributed to the time we had spent in Europe and the teams we had played," said Wise, who is 431-43 in 13 seasons at Florida. "I can remember telling the team as good a serving team as they (Wisconsin) are, they are not better than the Czech Republic international team. So we drew on those experiences all season."
This trip might be even more important for Wise's current team.
The Gators were the 2003 national runnerup, having advanced to their seventh Final Four and first national title game under Wise. Florida lost 3-1 to Stanford in the championship game. But Florida lost two All-Americans and two All-Conference players.
"This is the post Aury Cruz, Benavia Jenkins, Jen Mandes and Jacque Robinson era," Wise said. "We're still trying to find ourselves and what a great way to do it: on the road, against really good competition in a different environment."
Florida will play against national, junior national and club teams on the trip, but won't have the usual preparation of game film and practice. It's show up, play and see what happens.
"We're down some people and we only have a few hitters, so it's going to be fun to see now what we have in store for us this fall," senior middle blocker Sherri Williams said.
Some players hope to deepen team chemistry.
"We're obviously there to play and to win and keep working on what we've been working on, but at the same time it's also a team bonding experience and spending lots of time on and off the court is going to help further our relationships," junior Jane Collymore said.
Wise believes so strongly in the chemistry-building aspect that she is taking sophomore hitter Amber McCray, though she can't play because of an ACL injury she suffered late last season. McCray's surgery, scheduled last Wednesday, has been postponed for two weeks.
"We delayed the surgery so she could benefit from this experience, even without stepping on the court," Wise said.
The Gators were scheduled to take a similar trip to Europe last spring, but it was canceled when the war with Iraq began. Wise and the players said they aren't overly concerned about safety issues.
"I don't think there are any more so (safety concerns) than when you travel across the country," Wise said. "The many people that we've talked to, I really think there are certain things that you can't control. But I still think it's appropriate for us to remember that while we're getting to do this, there are still people who are fighting this war. So we won't forget that."
Men's volleyball
HONOLULU - Top seed Brigham Young (29-4) overcame three championship points to beat Long Beach State 15-30, 30-18, 20-30, 32-30, 19-17 late Saturday to win the NCAA title.
Cougars setter Carlos Moreno had 51 assists and was selected tournament MVP.
"I don't know how we won," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "The bottom line is we just had the heart to come back whenever we needed to. That's why I don't have any hair right now."
Baseball
TULANE 10, SOUTH FLORIDA 2: The Bulls (28-20, 10-13 Conference USA) lost their second straight to the host Green Wave. Myron Leslie went 2-for-4 and Bryan Hierlmeier was 1-for-4 with a home run for USF.
FLORIDA STATE 4, VIRGINIA 1: Stephen Drew homered and Bryan Zech added a two-run double for the visiting Seminoles. Drew hit a two-run homer, his 12th of the season, in the first for FSU (31-18, 10-8 ACC).
FLORIDA 6, ALABAMA 5: C.J. Smith's two-out, two-run single capped a four-run eighth inning for the visiting Gators (36-13, 16-8 SEC). The game ended after eight innings because of a league curfew on Sunday travel arrangements.
MIAMI 7, JACKSONVILLE 4: Adam Ricks had two hits including a run-scoring double to lead the host Hurricanes, who swept the Dolphins. Jon Jay, Jim Burt, Brian Barton and Erick San Pedro also had two hits each for Miami (36-9).
CENTRAL FLORIDA 3, CLEMSON 2: Darren Newlin allowed one run in 52/3 to lead the visiting Golden Knights (37-11).
Elsewhere
SOFTBALL: USF closed out its regular season with two comeback wins over Stetson, 4-1 and 4-3. Krista Holle singled to drive in the winning run in Game 2 for the Bulls (55-10), who improved to 33-3 at home.
WATER POLO: Freshman Brittany Hayes had three goals to lead Southern Cal (29-0) to the NCAA women's title with a 10-8 victory in Stanford, Calif., over Loyola Marymount.
NORTH FLORIDA: The Jacksonville school is contemplating a jump to Division I and could present a plan to university president John Delaney this summer. The school has been competing in Division II. Delaney favors the move if it's affordable, he told the Florida Times-Union.
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
