VOLLEYBALL
ADVENTURES ABROAD Former Gamecock volleyball players endure canceled seasons, hectic travel during pandemic
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By Brad Muller | SC Athletics • Photos by SC Athletics
he COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people in different ways. For former South Carolina volleyball student-athletes who were playing professionally overseas, not only were their jobs put on hold, but their ability to get home was an adventure as well. Fortunately, the former Gamecocks are safe, and like the rest of us, they’re taking stock in all that has transpired. “We were just about to go into our playoffs season,” said Mikayla Shields (20162019), who was playing in Finland. “Everything went downhill pretty quickly. We were on the bus on the road for a game, and as we were driving, we found out it had been canceled. A couple of days later, the whole league was shut down. That’s about the time that everything around the world was happening really fast.” “There was an announcement made through the Greek Volleyball Federation web page saying it was suspended,” said Dessaa Legros (2013-2016), who was playing in
30 COVID-19
Greece. “Then the girls from my team translated the message to all of the non-Greek speakers. I was currently recovering from surgery, I had recently torn my Achilles, but I had an idea our season would be cut short because I had friends in other leagues whose club had canceled playing earlier.”
For Sarah Blomgren (2012-2015), different decisions had to be made, at least initially. Playing professionally in Spain, she
had two weeks left in her season as well as the playoffs. “As things got worse and more diagnoses were happening in Spain, the Spanish Volleyball Federation decided to allow matches to be played without access to the public, so no spectators, only essential personnel,” Blomgren said. “A few days after that decision was made, we had a team meeting with our club director discussing talks of postponing the Spanish league. At this point, staying and finishing the season was my last priority as I was thinking about possible travel bans from all of Europe to the U.S.” Blomgren’s reasoning was sound as President Donald Trump announced a travel ban on Europe on Wednesday, March 11 that would go into effect just a couple of days later. “At 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, I booked a Friday flight home just before the ban went into effect,” Blomgren said. “It was a whirlwind of a week as things progressed rapidly. I couldn’t get ahold of my club that night and flights were being snatched up, so I
MAY 2020
