USA NCAA Volleyball Fall 2021

    Quote from Phil

    Of course it is 😭

    Julia Orzol already knew she wanted to become a part of the University of Wisconsin volleyball program. She just was feeling a little anxiety about leaving her home in Olsztyn, Poland, and traveling nearly 5,000 miles to Madison.

    She was telling UW coach Kelly Sheffield about this hesitation during a phone call, and he said he fully understood. But he went on to tell her a story about a bird’s nest outside his home where he’d watched the mother feed the baby bird until it was strong enough to leave the nest and fly off on its own.

    “I said, ‘Maybe, just maybe, you were meant to go and fly and this is your time to fly,’” Sheffield recalled. “She told me that really registered with her at the time.”

    What Sheffield had no way of knowing was Orzol’s surname is close to the Polish word for eagle — orzel. One of her nicknames, particularly among the Polish national team coaches, was Eagle.

    “He didn’t know about that,” Orzol said. “I thought this comparison is really accurate to my situation because my surname is connected with birds. We started laughing.”

    Accidentally or not, the story had served its purpose.


    “She thought that was a sign that this is where she’s supposed to be and it kind of gave her a little nudge to go ahead and do this,” Sheffield said.

    Fast forward to last weekend, when Orzol was spreading her wings for the No. 2 Badgers. The 6-foot Orzol averaged 3.29 kills per set, hitting .315, while providing six blocks, 10 digs and a service ace in her first two college matches against TCU and Baylor.

    It was just the kind of experience Orzol had imagined since the possibility of coming to the U.S. arose sometime after her Polish team played a couple of exhibition matches against the Badgers during their European tour in 2019.

    “It was pure joy and fun,” Orzol said about her debut. “I think I play my best volleyball when I don’t overthink, just let the game flow and be in the moment. Playing in this environment with this Badger community, it’s the best place I’ve ever played in. It’s a place that every athlete dreams of. I’m just smiling when I think of those two days, and I can’t wait for the next ones.”

    The joyful experience continued after the match with her introduction to the “time honored tradition” of singing “Varsity.”

    “I got to know 'Varsity' in our locker room,” she said. “The girls took care of that. I think it was one of my favorite moments of the game. We can connect with the fans who came to cheer for us. This experience is completely new for me, but it’s one of my favorites.”

    Orzol demonstrated her range of talents that caught the eye of the UW staff two years ago.


    “She had a great first weekend,” Sheffield said. “She is a really easy person for people to play with. She’s a great kid, she can help in so many ways and she doesn’t back down, doesn’t flinch. She wants to compete, wants to be great. I think what everybody saw this past weekend is how many different ways she can impact a match.”

    Orzol said she has become quite comfortable in her surroundings more than three weeks into her UW experience.

    “Day by day I’m getting to know new things and getting familiar with them,” she said. “I notice that I’m getting more and more organized. It’s great because I can be more calm.”

    She didn’t call her parents, Anna and Piotr, the first few days here, but they now talk every day early in the afternoon before practice, a time that best fits the seven-hour time difference.

    “They’re asking a lot of questions,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m being interviewed. It’s great because they’re curious about what’s happening here, how does it look.”

    Her parents were able to watch the first two matches, though it took some effort because the Big Ten Network is not available in Europe.

    “But they found a way, so they were able to be mentally with me,” Orzol said. “After each game, I got a message from my family, a group chat, so I feel their presence. They are with me all the time.”


    Orzol credits her teammates with helping with the transition. She said Giorgia Civita has been particularly helpful because she went through a similar experience five years ago when she left her home in Italy to play at Wichita State.

    “She knows how it actually feels to find yourself in a new environment,” Orzol said. “She’s been a big help.”

    And when she needs a cultural translation, she often turns to her roommate, fellow freshman Anna Smrek, from Welland, Ontario, Canada. Smrek, who shares the same birthday with Orzol — Oct. 11 — has a sense of the differing European and American viewpoints because her mother is from Croatia.

    “She helps when we’re talking about things and she’ll say I know in Europe it looks different but here it looks this way,” Orzol said.

    While she studied English while growing up in Poland and fluently speaks the language, she has discovered some holes in her education.

    “When it comes to slang and things like that, I have to learn that because this language is way different than what we learn in school in Poland,” she said. “You learn more formal stuff, correct grammar and everything. Here it’s not useful. It’s fun because I feel like I’m learning every day so much new vocabulary.

    “I like the process of learning. Day by day I’m becoming more comfortable joining in with the discussions. At first I was more of an observer, soaking up the language.”

    In turn, her teammates are working to adapt to her, using the Polish pronunciation of her first name — YU lee ah. They also are trying out some nicknames other than Eagle, like JuJu, Oz or YU la, a common nickname back home.


    “I like any of them, but I appreciate that they make an effort to remember to call me (Yu lee ah) because they care,” she said. “Like, this is your Polish name everybody called you for 18 years, so we want to call you the way people called you in Poland.”

    Her teammates also made a special first impression when she arrived in Madison on Aug. 9. While she felt some initial sadness when she boarded the plane in Warsaw, headed to Frankfurt, Germany, she was feeling better by the time she made her next connection from Chicago to Madison.

    Her first glimpse of Madison and the lakes from the air gave her the sense she was coming home.

    “In my hometown, Olstyn, there are a lot of lakes,” she said. “So my first thought was, am I actually coming to my home because it looks like my home? I think the lakes are one small thing that makes this place feel like home.”

    Her sense of being in the right place only grew when she was greeted by Sheffield, who led her to the baggage claim area, where the entire team had gathered to welcome her with a group hug that was captured on video.

    “I was shocked, to be honest,” Orzol said. “I didn’t know what was happening in that moment. Maybe it was because I was tired from the journey and when you’re tired your mind isn’t as clear. When I landed it was like, what to do next? Then I saw Kelly and I had a thing in the back of my mind that he knows something I don’t know.

    “So then I saw all the girls on the team there and I was shocked. It was heartwarming. It was the best thing that they could do to make me feel welcome and make me forget about this transition, this changing of the culture. It was one of the most heartwarming moments that I’ve ever experienced.”

    Quote from avid

    If you ever want to complain about challenges again.... Oregon-Rice has one that is currently going on *checks watch* 17 minutes


    edit: and it just ended lol

    Listening to John Cook talk.... sounds like the Big Ten wants to upgrade their replay systems... (Cameras) but covid derailed that a little bit, hopes to see it next season


    Nebraska tried to buy FIVB's system that they used in the VNL... they wanted to... but the NCAA and the Big 10 said no.


    Said it was an unfair advantage to Nebraska to have that system... sigh

    I have a headache looking at this game :D

    Hawaii lost like 6 or 7 points in a row. I also see Leoniak switching between zone 1 and 6, trying to attack from zone 6 in backrow...

    Quote from Phil

    I have a headache looking at this game :D

    Hawaii lost like 6 or 7 points in a row. I also see Leoniak switching between zone 1 and 6, trying to attack from zone 6 in backrow...

    Hawaii doesn't know what to do with Leoniak. It's so messy


    de Geode entered the match for a bit. Demirtas didn't make the trip to Utah.

    Quote from avid

    Hawaii doesn't know what to do with Leoniak. It's so messy


    de Geode entered the match for a bit. Demirtas didn't make the trip to Utah.

    Demirtas should've make the trip imo.


    Even if Hawaii shuffles their wing spikers around it still doesn't settle their setting woes.