Two members of The Sage Colleges women's volleyball team competed as members of the Italian Challenge, a 10-day travel and competitive experience that took place in Italy, June 7-16, 2014. Sage's Katelyn Drollette (Cadyville, NY/Saranac) and junior middle hitter, Mickey Mango (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Springs) competed this summer as members of the volleyball team that participated as part of the Italian Challenge with stops in Venice, Florence, and Rome, Italy.
Mickey Mango said of the trip, "I've always wanted to travel and to be able to play, while I'm doing it is such an amazing opportunity!" Mango added, "I can't wait to see all the historic land marks of Italy and to play the local teams!"
The 10-player team, which is made up of women from Division III colleges and universities within the NCAA, will compete across Italy in the Continental Cup. The tour is part of USA Athletes International, which organizes tours and All-Star teams, to play and compete all over the world in 15 different sports.
The Sage pair competed as members of a team that includes players from other NCAA Division III schools such as SUNY-Cortland, SUNY-Oneonta, New Jersey City University (NJ), Hunter College (NY), and Hope College (MI). The US team was coached by Jonathan Penn from Vassar College.
Over the course of the trip, the team had an opportunity to compete in four different cities, Venice, Florence, Arezzo, and Rome, while also having an opportunity to visit and tour these international destinations.
USA Athletes International, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving amateur athletes and coaches the opportunity to participate in international Olympic-style sporting events throughout the world, while also allowing them to broaden their educational and cultural knowledge of the world through the experience.
With over 20 years experience of international sports tournament travel, we have experienced much growth and built a brand to be proud of. What started with one baseball team has grown to over 60 annual tours. We currently are represented with over 900 athletes in seven sports that travel around the world to over 14 countries.
How Sage's junior women's volleyball tri-captain Mickey Mango spent her summer of 2014!
Day one and day two: We made it! And so did our luggage! Running on no sleep for 24+ hours and we still managed to take the team to 30! Now it's time for some delicious dinner and off to bed! Off to Venice tomorrow to play some more locals!
Met the assistant mayor of Gorizia today and we won our game in five! Touring Venice tomorrow…. Gonna be a lot of walking.
Touring Tuscany/Florence today! Seeing Romeo and Juliet's home town! Game later! Let's go USA!
Toured Florence yesterday and saw David, Pisa today. Going to see the beautiful coast line!
Saw the leaning tower, went to a beach and won in five last night! On our way to Rome now, our final destination, boy this trip sure went by too fast!
Got blessed by the Pope, saw the Coliseum and won both our games! Great last day! Don't want to leave tomorrow :(
Finally home! Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible for me, especially Mike Mango and Jean Mango. It was truly the trip of a life time! I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to go with! I'm gonna miss you all so much, I know we will stay in touch though.
So this trip took ten days total (not counting the night our flight got cancelled and we were stuck in Dublin!).
We saw 7 cities in the 10 days and played six games. We won four out of the six matches, with the last day being a Tri-Match victory, where we won a first place cup! All the teams we played were local club teams from the city we were in that day. The ages of the girls we played against ranged from 16-40! IT really was the trip of a life time for me to be able to not only travel through Italy but to be completely immersed in the culture! I am so glad I was given this opportunity, words really cannot describe the fun we all had.
