Stuart Lieberman, Staff Writer

08/24 at 11:21 PM

It took two or three years, but Auburn volleyball head coach Wade Benson has finally brought a change of pace to the Student Activities Center.

After establishing connections with volleyball leagues in Europe and South America with the help of foreign-born assistants Jozsef Forman and Edgard da Gama e Silva, Benson has been able to lure four international players to Auburn the past two seasons.

Vesela Zapryanova, Petra Csengeri, Camila Jersonsky and Kathia Rud have joined the team, and with them, they have brought an entirely different outlook on the game than the Tigers are used to.

“They have more of a professional mindset, meaning they want to be pros,” Benson said. “And in their countries, they can be pros.”
That’s not exactly what the American-born Tigers are used to.

“Here, there is no pro league, and the kids don’t aspire to be professional players, most of them, unless they learn about Europe and other countries where they can go out there and do it,” Benson said. “It’s a foreign thought to them, whereas with the internationals, it’s what they’re doing. They’re going to school to get an education, but they want to be pros.”

Zapryanova, a redshirt freshman who will fight for a starting role this season, was Benson’s first international recruit. Benson lured Zapryanova from Bulgaria last fall when he showed her photos of Auburn’s campus after watching her play in a tournament in Europe.

But the transition was no walk in the park for the outside hitter.

“You’re coming from a completely different place, and you don’t have any of your friends, no one from your family,” Zapryanova said. “You don’t know anyone. You don’t know what to expect.

“Last year was pretty hard for me because I had some issues with all of my documentation and everything.”

Senior libero Liz Crouch, who led the team with 453 digs last season, has been around long enough to notice the program is in for a change.
She said that rather than just throwing the best individual talent out there right away and only focusing on one season at a time, the Tigers have finally laid the groundwork to establish themselves as a force to reckon with year after year in the SEC.

“At the beginning of this year, we started more with a team unity,” Crouch said. “We’re not relying on our incoming freshmen as much.”

However, Crouch said she knows the international newcomers will add some much-needed depth to a squad that went 3-17 in SEC play her freshman year.

And Auburn’s 22 player roster hasn’t gone unnoticed in the SEC. The Tigers were recently picked by conference coaches to finish second in the SEC West after posting a 16-15 record last season — the squad’s best mark in the last decade.

Benson, who has lived in Australia and Belgium, believes bringing in players from around the globe is just the beginning of a new era for the program.

“You look at Auburn swimming, you look at Gonzaga basketball. It’s kind of how you got an unknown to become a known,” Benson said.

All he needs now are a few eyes to shift from the football program for a couple of minutes when the team opens its season as hosts of the War Eagle Invitational on Friday.

“I would love for the city to take this team and show them that there’s support for somebody who’s working a thousand percent out there,” the third-year coach said.

But none of that attention matters to Zapryanova, who said all she wants is a “good, tough coach” like Benson to help her fulfill her future aspirations.

“I have plans. When I graduate I really want to go home and play professionally,” the outside hitter said. “Back home, it’s a huge deal to play professionally, even if it’s not on that good of a team.

“And after you get on the professional team, you’re hoping to go play for the national team, and then you’re hoping to get to some World Championships and then the Olympic Games. That’s what everyone’s here for.”

While Benson admits most of his players just want to “be good enough at volleyball to have (their) school pay for it,” the international players have something more in mind.

“It’s more of a football or basketball mentality (for them), where if you’re really good, you’ve got a chance for this to be your livelihood,” Benson said.

This season, with three of the six freshmen coming from abroad, Zapryanova is being looked to as a mentor.

“I took the same classes as them, so I’m trying to help them as much as I can,” Zapryanova said. “I know what it’s like. It’s not easy at all, especially the first two months. ... The time difference and everything, and you’re trying to get used to it.

“You have to come and you have to perform at your best level. Everyone expects so much from you, but you’re just not physically able … It’s a lot harder than people actually think it is.”

But with similar goals in mind, Zapryanova is telling the international freshmen her move was worth it.

“I think it took me like six months to get used to it and then the spring was awesome. And now, everything is perfect,” she said.

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