Erie, PA - Follow Gannon Volleyball in Central America! The team will spend the week of August 2 - 9 in Nicaragua, where they will play several matches against the Nicaraguan national team and perform community service throughout the country. Each day this week, Gannon players will write journal entries recording details of their adventure abroad. We hope you'll check back to read details of this once-in-a-lifetime trip!

Day 3 

Today the entire team spent the morning performing community service with various organizations in San Juan del Sur. Sarah, Chelsea, Courtney, Maire, and I went to Casa de Mujeres, a women's center dedicated to empowering women in Nicaragua. When we first got there the woman that was in charge gave us the history of the centers and women of Nicaragua. Our team brought many donations to the center, and hopefully they will be able to use the clothes and sewing materials to raise money for their work. We felt a strong connection to these women, all of whom are looking to improve their lives just like we are.

Our next stop was Los Pepitos, a school for the disabled, where we gave additional donations to the people and played games with them. Some of us played catch while others colored. All the people there were so happy to have new things to play with and I really enjoyed going there. My group and I felt like we did some good work today, and it was fun to hear what our teammates had done at their sites also.

-Lindsey Deitmen 


One of the programs introduced by foreigners living in San Juan del Sur is a “bookmobile”. This morning Alex, Coach, and I rode on the bookmobile to deliver books to three rural schools. The first thing we noticed was that the schools were completely different from what we were use to. The layout of the school was “open air”, and the entire school was usually only 2 or 3 rooms. Because these schools were in the countryside, the classes had students from a range of ages. For example the first class we visited had students from 8 to 12.

At each school Alex and I helped the local volunteer do arts and crafts projects with the kids while coach helped others distribute books to the students. It was a very cool and interesting experience. Alex and I had the chance to use a little bit of Spanish, but honestly the second grade reading level in the classroom was about perfect for us.

-Lauren Sazama 


Our team was really fired up for the match and we made sure to tell everybody in town! Despite the possibility of rain, a couple hundred people showed up to watch.

The venue for the match was almost as interesting as the match itself. We could hear music from a court about a block away and walking through the gates we were shocked to see an outdoor court surrounded by concrete bleachers. There was already a lot of energy in the arena from the music and the crowd. None of us had ever played outdoor volleyball under the lights so we had to adjust to different conditions than we were used to.

Despite the adjustments, we won three of the four games against Nicaragua to earn our second consecutive win against them. Our blocking and defense looked great and definitely helped us win. Coach Darling was very happy because he has been having us work on blocking drills every practice during pre-season. When we threw T-shirts into the crowd they went wild! It was a great win for the team and we are all looking forward to another day of community service and adventure.

Hasta la vista!

-Lindsey and Lauren