Mary Grace Kelly, volleyball sophomore outside hitter, spent her summer playing volleyball in Europe, where she worked on improving her skills to gear up for another year with the Huskies.

Kelly became the 10th Huskie since 2005 to compete internationally when she participated in the 2014 European Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia, with Bring It Promotions’ Adidas Midwest Team. While competing for the Adidas Midwest Team she produced wins against Italian club Falconara and BIP USA in pool play and advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament. Kelly earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

Northern Star: When did [head coach Ray] Gooden let you know he wanted you to participate in this trip?

Mary Grace Kelly: He told me right about when school ended, so around May. It was this big group of girls from the Midwest. A lot of the girls were from the Chicago area from different schools all around the Midwest, so that’s how I kind of fit in with the team, and they needed an outside hitter, so Ray gave my name to the head coach.

NS: You’re an underclassman. Was the team made up of just fellow underclassmen or were there juniors and seniors as well?

MGK: There was a variety. I was one of two sophomores, and there was also one incoming freshman. The rest are going to be juniors.

NS: How many games did you play while you were in Europe? How do you feel you preformed?

MGK: “We started off playing two exhibition games in Montenegro, and they had a U-17 club, so we traveled with them and played two games, which was the first week we were down there. The second week started the tournament in Croatia, and we played two games a day for four days.

NS: Did you communicate with Gooden or some of your fellow Huskies while you were away to help you through the process?

MGK: While I was there it was kind of hard to communicate with them, but while I was still here I know that Ray [Gooden] has a lot of experience sending players oversees, so he was able to give me a good intro to what I would see over there. Also [Alexis] ‘Pookie’ [Gonzalez] and Lauren [Zielinski], who are juniors on the team who both did it before, gave me a lot of advice, so it was easier to play overseas because I had a lot of heads up of what was gonna happen.”

NS: Does anything in particular stand out from playing overseas that you don’t see every day playing in the States?

MGK: It was really cool to see over there how very precise they are on their ball control and their serving and everything, and that’s something that us Americans do not do as well. I think that like going back to the basics really proved that’s how those European teams win, basically. I think that working on that will help me a lot.

NS: How has preseason been going in your eyes so far?

MGK: Preseason has been really, really great this year. It’s very competitive, and I’m only a sophomore, but we’ve been hearing from Ray [Gooden] that this is one of the most competitive practice levels that we’ve been having. Every single drill is always just so fun and competitive.

NS: Do you have any personal or team goals you would like to see heading into the season opener this weekend?

MGK: Well, basically right now we don’t know what to expect because we’ve only played ourselves at this point, so I think just to go out and focus on our side of the net and play cleanly. Obviously, we really want to win.”