Thursday, December 12, 2013

NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene University's volleyball team will tour China and play six exhibition matches against China collegiate teams this summer.

After a season that saw the Crusaders set a school record in GNAC play with a 14-4 league mark and match the program’s best win total in NCAA Division II play with an 18-6 overall record, NNU received an invitation to be part of a cultural exchange program with China. 

From June 7-18, the Crusader volleyball team will play as many as six exhibition matches, while also touring historic and cultural sights.

“We’re really excited to go,” head NNU volleyball coach Doug English said. “It’s going to be an awesome experience and something myself and the staff and the girls haven’t experienced before.”

Once in China, the team will stay with host families and have its expenses for food and travel covered as part of the exchange. But the Crusaders will need to fund-raise the cost of travel to and from China, as well as any additional expenses in gathering the team during the summer break to depart from the Treasure Valley.

The tour is the first of what Dr. Ben Earwicker, chair of NNU’s  Department of Psychology, Sociology and Criminal Justice and chair of the Department of Language, Literature, and Culture, expects will be many exchanges between NNU and China.

Earwicker said he hopes to see a five-year rotation for Crusader athletic teams making this tour in coming years, but adds that the exchange will not be limited to student-athletes. Earwicker hopes to see members of the NNU music department follow in the volleyball team’s footsteps and tour China next December.

But this first cultural exchange will be for Crusader volleyball team, which is expected to return its complete lineup from this year’s squad.

So, along with being a once in a lifetime experience for the Crusader coaches and student-athletes, the trip also is a chance for the team to practice and play together for two weeks during the summer, in a very unique environment, adds English.

“It’s a huge bonus,” NNU’s coach said, adding that NCAA rules allow for a team to make one foreign tour every four years, making this truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Crusader players.

“We get an extra two weeks together that we wouldn’t have had or wouldn’t have seen each other, and it’s during a time where we are in a place where our players won’t feel necessarily comfortable except with their teammates.”

While the trip isn’t until June, the Crusaders will begin preparing for the exchange as soon as classes resume in January, taking 40 hours of language classes to prepare them for their visit to China.