Nicole Vogel (Costa Mesa, Calif.), a senior member of the Stony Brook University volleyball team will represent the United States of America over the next few weeks in Croatia for the 2015 European Global Challenge.

Seawolves' head coach Coley Pawlikowski and associate head coach Dan Pawlikowski will coach the BIP/USA Development Team with Vogel and fellow senior Stephanie McFadden (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) on the roster, while sophomores Cydney Bowman (Lake Mary, Fla.) and Courtney Scanlan (Salamanca, N.Y.) will play for Team BIP (Bring it Promotions, LLC).

During their journey, each student-athlete will be blogging about their experiences.

Today was my first full day in the Czech Republic. We are staying in a hotel called the "Hotel Caesar". The hotel is right in the middle of Prague (which in Czech is Praha) and has an awesome little coffee shop right across the way that has the best maple iced latte. My day began waking up at 6:50am, which is 12:50am back in New York. It was not too hard to adjust to the time change because I basically slept for 2 plane rides and a five hour layover. Steph and I headed down to breakfast and saw a spread of every pastry you can imagine, meats and cheeses, and some yogurt and cereal. After, we headed to the gym by taking the public transportation (reminiscent of that of San Francisco) to the gym of one of our guides to have a two-hour practice, lunch, and then a Czech scrimmage. Practice was a great way to have a first look at how everyone plays and get a feel for the team we would play a match with in just a few hours. Lunch was preordered for us and was a chicken noodle type of soup, and a salad with lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and chicken. The jet lag started to hit me during lunch, which was perfect timing because we had a nice little break before we played. When we walked back to the gym the Czech girls were arriving as well and they ranged from about 16-19 years old. After a short warmup we played 5 games, switching up lineups every game. The other team was super scrappy and were digging some really tough balls hit by our team. It was a really great experience to play these girls, they had a different method of the game and played it well. Afterwards they ran over and handed all of us the jerseys they had just worn. I received number 14, the setter's jersey. I ran over and offered them the practice shirt that i had been wearing and they were so excited, they did not even care that it was sweaty!

After we got back to the hotel Steph and I tried to shower and get ready to sightsee as fast as we could so that we could got get some maple iced lattes (That Mary, from NIU, and Sarah, from USC, so highly rated). We caught the rail for about six stops to go to the Castle at the top of the city. The view was spectacular. Every which way I turned was another beautiful building or statue that has been around longer than our country was even the United States. The city had pieces of history around every corner, even on random shops or apartment buildings. I think my favorite sight of the day was the bridge called Kings Cross. The bridge had a very unique story* that our guide told us before we were allowed to meander over the bridge, going into shops and whatnot for about forty-five minutes. Everything was impeccable, the clouds, the weather, the gelato (I had coconut, it was one of the best things right up there with Disney pineapple Dole whip), the chicken Schnitzel (basically a giant chicken finger), and the tube shaped sugar pretzel treat that we got to try.

The team is amazing. Everyone has been really nice and everyone has some weird connection of how they know the same person, which is really fun to listen to. They all have such interesting stories and are very open and willing to try new things. I think that this has been a topnotch trip so far, and it is only the first day! Tomorrow we have a four-hour practice and then have the afternoon to go roam the city with each-other. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

*The story of the bridge (paraphrased) is that there was a king, who was a really good king and everyone loved him. he had a son, and when his son took over he was a drunkard and could not father a child. The new king blamed his wife for cheating on him and decided to arrange a confession for his wife. The king asked the priest to tell him if his wife was cheating or not. The priest would not tell and was tortured and eventually thrown off the bridge. The spot where he was thrown off has a gold cross and if you put your left hand on it and make a wish it will (50% of the time) come true.

-Nicole