By Karen Garcia |
Djurdjina Milovic
Position: Setter
Grade: Sophomore
Hometown: Lazarevac, Serbia
What made you want to come to UP?
At first I wanted to come to the States to play volleyball and study—and I tried to find colleges that were the best option for me. I liked UP’s volleyball program and the academics, and I also liked campus. I asked people about Portland and they told me that it was amazing. It’s different, and I liked everything about it, even though I’d never come before.
Are there any differences between playing in Serbia and playing in the U.S.?
I think there are bigger differences in other sports, and in volleyball the basic things are the same, with little changes. It wasn’t that bad.
What was it like adjusting to life in the U.S. in general?
My first ten days here are ones I’m never going to forget. It was really hard—I’d never felt like that in my entire life. I’d traveled in Europe, but I’d never moved anywhere so far away. I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know any places, I didn’t know the language that well, and you know—everything was different. After the 20-hour flight, I was scared, because I knew that my family and friends were so far, so there was no way for me to call them and say, “Can someone come here?” So I thought all those things: “Should I go back home? Maybe this is not for me,” you know, all that stuff.
But then my teammates--I’m never going to forget this—they were so nice. I was scared that they wouldn’t accept me since I was the only international student on the team, but they were awesome. They’d talk to me and we went to Target because I had to buy a bunch of things and they were there, carrying bags for me, helping me. We would watch movies together because it was pre-season. And then practice came, and volleyball was the thing that I knew I could do, and that helped me adjust. It was really hard, but it got a lot better.
How did you get into volleyball?
I started playing volleyball when I was seven. In Europe, you choose one sport and focus on it. People don’t really play several sports at once. I’m not even sure why I chose volleyball, and I never imagined that it would take me this far. I was playing for years, and then I thought, “If I have the opportunity to go to the States, and play and study and learn the language and meet new people, I’m going to do it.”
What attracts you to volleyball specifically?
The challenges—the fact that I’ve been playing for such a long time and that there’s still things I have to work on. I don’t like it when something’s easy, it’s not fun. If you have to work on something all the time, that’s fun—even when you know you’re never going to be perfect. I like that it’s never good enough; you always have to work more.
Do you like all the traveling you have to do?
Yeah, most of the teams in our conference are from California, so we’ve been there a few times. I think that when people hear we go to California they think it’s all fun, but it’s work. We literally just play, sleep, eat and study. The hardest part for me is to take tests on the road because you have to take them in a lobby with coaches present and you can’t get your professor to clarify questions that you have.
How do you feel about your season?
If you see our scores, some people may think, ‘Oh, that’s not good, they’ve been losing.” But the players know that we’re getting better through every single practice and how we’re improving. Our conference is really hard, and teams in it are really good. But I do think we’re getting better every week. Even though our scores aren’t that good, in the long run, I think it’ll be good for us. We’re one of the top teams in serving in our conference, and that was a goal of ours this year. And that shows that when you work for something, there’ll be results.
You guys have a new coach this year. How was the transition?
We changed all three coaches and then a fourth one came, so we have four new coaches. We’ve had to do things we didn’t before, and it’s been hard to adjust to someone’s new style at times, but they do it for the team and it’s been working well. Last year we lost every game, so obviously we had to change something; you can’t do the same thing and expect different results.
