Courtney Scanlan (Salamanca, N.Y.), a sophomore 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.

Hello again!

This is the final day of Global Challenge and I couldn't be any happier with the experience.

Last thing you knew I was in Slovenia but we left for Pula, Croatia on the fourth day to actually start tournament play. A lot of the teams met in Slovenia that morning and left bright and early for Croatia. One of those teams was my Stony Brook coaches as well as two of my teammates from school. It was fun to reunite and share stories about their experiences compared to ours. The bus ride was a little over 5 hours which was pretty exhausting, but the view from the bus was beautiful which made it all worth it. There are a ton of huge, beautiful mountains and some that are covered with houses on the side of the mountain range.

Once we finally arrived we had a little free time to go swimming or explore around a little bit. There was a small private beach area two minutes from our hotel that we went to. I was surprised that it was a rocky beach instead of a sandy beach, but the water was so clear you could see everything through it. Opening ceremonies were later that evening which was really cool. It took place in the center of Pula right outside of the amphitheater. All of the teams lined up and were called up to the stage to take a picture and dance to their teams song. It was a lot of fun to have all of the teams there dancing to music and getting excited for the tournament to start. The ceremony ended kind of late so we didn't have that long to walk around the town, but we were able to go into some really cute shops to get souvenirs.

The next day was the first games of the tournament, our first match was against a Hungarian team. We came out really strong and won all three sets. Later that evening we played another team and won two out of three sets. Playing with a whole new group of girls normally puts you at an extreme disadvantage because you aren't comfortable playing next to them yet and don't know their tendencies. But, my team made this seem easy. I've never been on a team in which we've bonded so fast, it feels like I've known and been playing with these girls for years. The next few days we played two matches a day, one in the morning and one later at night. During the breaks we would normally eat and go lay outside by the beach or take a nap. All of us were exhausted after playing because it's so hot both outside and inside the gym because there wasn't any air conditioning in the gyms. One day the temperature got up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees) and it was hard to even be outside.

We made it to the semi-finals but unfortunately lost the the Italian Jr. National Team. They had girls on their team that were 6'4" and insanely built. It was exciting for us to even compete with them during the game. Our energy helped us go point for point with them for almost the whole first set. Playing against a team like that is what makes you a better athlete because they expose the weaknesses in your play and force you to make a change. Since we lost this match this kicked us into the other bracket in which we played the next morning against another American team. We won that game after a slow start. Our coach promised us that if we won we could go cliff diving, so they kept there promise and off we went.

Once we got to the diving location we had to walk a little ways through a lot of rocks and weeds but it was all worth it. I was the first one to go off of the initial jump. This rock was 35 feet above this crystal clear water. It's kind of nerve racking looking in the water and clearly seeing the rocks at the bottom making them look like you're jumping directly onto them. Everyone was just saying, "Don't think, just jump." And that's exactly what I did. It felt amazing jumping into this water and one I got out I knew I wanted to try the high one. Me and my teammate climbed the rocks all the way up to the 50 foot jumping spot. When we looked over the edge it looked SO much higher than the last. But, I didn't walk all the way up there to not jump so I just decided to go for it and jump. While I was on my way down I had what felt like an eternity to think and regret what I had just done. The jump had to only be 3-4 seconds but it felt like an hour. I didn't think I was ever going to make it to the water. I finally made it in and popped up and it was such an amazing feeling that I had done that. Later some of us swam out to a cave that was absolutely amazing. It's crazy how clear the water is in the Adriatic Sea. This was easily one of coolest things I've ever done.

Now we're headed to Venice for a full day and night of sight seeing. Then I leave to go back to school in the morning.

This whole trip has been the experience of a lifetime. I've become such a better volleyball player by learning more shots and tips that can improve my game. It's always nice having different coaches sometimes that can give you new information or say the same information in a different way. I've met so many great people that I'm going to miss so much. I wish this trip never had to end.

Global Challenge 2K15 is a wrap!

-Courtney