Volleyball in Japan

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Braul killing it /Arthur Ward

Braul killing it /Arthur Ward

We interview Lindsay Braul, the Cougars’ libero

Article: John Loeppky 

We got to interview the awesome libero of the Cougars, Lindsay Braul. Her answers speak for themselves.

So, first of all, if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Lindsay Braul and I’m in my fourth year of my program with the Faculty of Education. This is my fifth year of eligibility with the Cougar’s women’s volleyball team.

What are some of your favourite aspects of playing volleyball?

I love the team atmosphere and the team dynamic, that everyone has their role, and when that all comes together it’s so much fun. It’s so much fun to compete with a whole bunch of really strong young women.

When did you find out about this trip to Japan?

We were so focused on nationals [last year] that it was another really exciting thing to look forward to, but it took the back seat, so we really didn’t think that heavily about it until after nationals.

Can you describe a little of what you did while you were in Japan?

We were hosted by three different universities and we trained with each of them for three days. We had one or two training sessions each day and we learned so much. It’s such a different style of game and it’s fast. It’s fast, and they’re small players, but they are so smart. So, we learned a lot about how to make the most of your abilities.

Presumably, while you were in Japan, you got to experience some cultural events. What were some of those?

Yes, we got to go up to a couple of different temples and they prayed for our season and for a national championship and so we got to experience that part of their culture. We also got to spend some time in downtown Tokyo.

What do you think coming from those training sessions is going to be your team’s biggest takeaway?

Probably the discipline and the attitude that they showed us. I think that we are going to be able to use the ball control that we learned there. They have incredible ball control and incredible defense and we got to learn and be a part of a lot of their drills and so, even in this past month of our practicing since we’ve gotten back, we’ve been doing a lot of those same drills.

Finally, what are some of your goals for this year, what’s the next step?

Our team goal is always to win the national championship, without a doubt, but you have to take it one thing at a time. Hopefully, this preseason, we can work it out. We have a couple new starters and so our team dynamic has changed a little bit, so hopefully we can use this next month to establish that. We want to make playoffs, to make the final four. We’ve played with all of these teams, we’ve taken sets off of all of these teams in previous years, we have a good attitude, and we are confident that we can do it.

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