Volleyball Continues European Barnstorming Tour
May 10, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
May 10, 2001
by Nancy Smith
In its first day of competition, the University of Louisville defeated Klagenfurt Bundling 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-16.
Using the new NCAA rules, the team plays rally scoring for the first four games until 25 or a team wins by two. The Klagenfurt team was an all-star team made up of members of the Universitat of Klagenfurt team and of the Hypo VBK (Hypo is a bank and the sponsor, VBK is Volleyball KlubKlagenfurt.) One of the players, Martina Magnet, a left-handed hitter will play at Long Beach State next year. There were a pair of sisters who also played for Hypo, Kirsten and Sandra Slanitsch, who were the junior national champion slalom and downhill ski champions. They both suffer from a little knee trouble and have taken up training for volleyball as ``liveros`` which are defensive specialist that only play the back row and don?t count as substitutions. The Cardinals welcomed the skiiers to the world of volleyball but six-packed Kirsten twice and she had to leave the game. The Slanitsch sisters can take comfort in the fact that none of the Cardinals can ski worth a lick.
During the match, it was difficult for Coach Yelin to ``work`` the officials as the first official spoke no English (or Russian for that matter) and the second official was the Hypo coach's 20 year-old son, Hansi. Yelin also didn't realize there were unlimited timeouts. He caught on about six timeouts into the first game!
After the match, Coach Johann ``Beppo`` Huber took the team to a restaurant that served only Austrian food. He ordered kartnernudel which are like chicken and dumpling without the gravy or giant raviolios. Some were stuffed with cheese or spinach or hash. Hansi Huber spoke wonderful English and taught the players who to count to 25, as that is how many points there are in a volleyball game. He sat next to volunteer coach, Chad Norton, who claims to have taken four years of German at Covington Catholic. Norton put on an exhibition of his entire German repetoire which included the burning questions: ``What time is it?`` and ``My name is Chad`` and also wowed Hansi with his ability to count to a thousand. Hansi was very polite and earnestly told Chad he had the vocabulary and math knowledge of a typical Austrian 4 year old. The rest of the table felt Hansi was being extremely generous in his estimates.
Sunday morning came early for the Cardinals as they headed out for Venice at 7:30 a.m. Coach Beppo Huber drove one of our vans. This, my friends, is a man who knows his way around the autostrade. After scoffing openly at Coach Yelin?s claims that the vans only went 140 kph, he proceeded to put the pedal to the medal and rarely averaged less than 160. Norton and Coach Rcik Nold, the other two van drivers, have been haranguing the driving race van team of Yelin/Smith for their conservative driving, got a taste of real terror as they struggled to keep up with Beppo Andretti.
Not surprisingly, the group arrived in Venice early. Beppo put the group on a water taxi to St. Mark?s Square. The players were so enthralled with the views that it was a miracle the taxi didn?t capsize as they would rush from side to side, front to back and point out beautiful sights.
St. Mark?s was huge with ornate statuary on every surface. It was teeming with tourists and jammed with shops. The players were chomping at the bit to boost the Italian economy with thousands and thousands of Lira. (A quick lesson on the lira: it costs 1000 lira to go to the potty . There are 2000 lira to a dollar.)
Beppo then drove us to Treviso, a little town about 45 minutes from Venice. Unlike his male American counterparts, Coach Huber is not afraid to stop and ask for directions. Of course there are only occasional street signs and the roads wind around in a serpentine manner. Actually, we have found very little that scares our Beppo, including running redlights.
``I am telling you, the Italians don?t mind if you run the redlights,`` he assured us.
The Norton/Norton and Nold/Abubo driving teams were very grateful to see the return of the Yelin/Smith team at the wheel. Upon the arrival to Treviso, the team only had 45 minutes to prepare for the match. The gym looked like a converted ski lodge with beautiful tongue and groove natural wood ceiling and walls. There was a Terraflex floor, which is like rubbery tile and not all that conducive to sliding that the volleyball players must do. The Treviso Zoppas Conegliano Club defeated the Cardinals 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 19-25, 25?-22 and 15-12). The were a first division club, which would be like our baseball team playing a Triple AAA baseball team. The crowd was very enthusiastic about the match and got behind the Cardinals every game.
The next day was a practice day and it was then that this intrepid reporter attempted to update the website from the Universitat of Klagenfurt library computer. I got locked in the library and then detained by the Universitat police (polizei) who shouted and questioned me at length and all in German with no translator!! I somehow had gotten into their computer without a password (American ingenuity at its best) and finally was shoved out into the courtyard with no small amount of force. that is why there has been a gap in reporting here!!
Tomorrow, a Germany update!!
