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Orient ExpressBaylor's volleyball team plans spring trip to China
By Brice Cherry
Like most Americans, the members of the Baylor volleyball team watched
the Beijing Olympics with great interest. For them, however, it wasn't
so much about the competition or the pageantry--though those elements
were appealing, too. They viewed it more as a travel guide.
That's because Jim Barnes's Bears are planning a trip to China next
May. The team will spend twelve days visiting both Beijing and
Shanghai, playing a series of exhibition games against international
opponents in between making sightseeing excursions and performing
mission work.
 "It
hasn't processed through my head that we're actually going to get to go
to China and play internationally against these teams," junior setter
Taylor Barnes said. "It's going to be so awesome. It's a
once-in-a-lifetime experience."
NCAA rules allow college athletic programs to take one out-of-season
international trip every four years. This marks the first such journey
for the Baylor volleyball program, and Coach Barnes says it will be
invaluable in myriad ways.
"It'll be a great twelve days of competition and training," he said.
"And then we can do some mission work, which is going to be nice, as
far as these players learning some things and serving some of the poor
communities in the area."
The trip will also serve as a homecoming for one of Baylor's newest players, Qian Zhang, a freshman outside hitter from Beijing.
"With Qian [pronounced Chen] being on our team, she's going to get to
show us her country," Barnes said. "It's like having our own tour
guide."
"I'm really excited about going to see China because that's one of the
places I've always wanted to go," said junior outside hitter Katie
Sanders (pictured above). "I want to see the Great Wall of China, I
want to see the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City. It's so amazing to
me. I'm a history major, so I'm just like, 'Oh cool! This is the
history of the world!'"
The adventure is not completely finalized. Barnes said the trip is
estimated to cost $60,000, about a third of which has already been
raised. He added that the team is hoping to raise the remainder of the
funds before the end of the 2008 season.
It's a lot of money to rustle up, but Barnes believes the end result will be priceless for the team.
"Especially with the mission work," the coach said. "We're looking to
get a mindset of appreciating what we have, when we go and do some
service in the poor areas. These girls have never seen things like that
before.
"It's a trip that could really mature us, and part of being a great team is being mature."
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