Michigan volleyball coach Mark Rosen knew he wanted to take his team on a spring trip, but he didn't know where.

China and Europe were possibilities. But while recruiting a player from Iowa Western Community College — of all places — last year, Rosen finally had his destination: Brazil.

At IWCC, Rosen found Juliana Paz, a Porto Alegre, Brazil native. Paz eventually committed to the Wolverines, and Rosen and his coaching staff decided to finalize a plan that had been a few years in the making.

“We had been talking about this group of players going on a foreign trip,” Rosen said. “You want to do it on a year where you have a lot of returners."

Michigan returns all but two players from last season’s Sweet Sixteen squad, so this was an ideal time for the Wolverines to take a trip. With Paz on the roster, it was an obvious move to head to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from May 17-29.

The team will play six Brazilian club teams in a 10-day stretch.

“Brazil tends to be a little faster pace, and they focus on defense and ball control,” Rosen said. "They play just aggressive defense, keeping balls alive. It’ll force us to play at a much higher level.”

Offensively, foreign competition is more “outside dominated,” according to junior right side hitter Megan Bower. Setters tend to serve their hitters on the sidelines instead of in the middle of the court or out of the back row.

And the attitude is different, too.

“They’re very passionate about how they play, and they play very externally,” Rosen said. “In our country, if someone says something through the net, you get a little offended. That’s commonplace there, and it’ll be interesting to see how our kids handle that confrontation.”

Different culture, different world

The Wolverines will see a whole different culture and lifestyle in Brazil.

In Brazil, teams don't have a lot of money or funding, so players compete in dirty, leaky facilities that don't look like the state-of-the-art volleyball courts here.

“We’re a first-world country, and they’re third world.” Rosen said. “But in volleyball, (skills-wise), it's the exact opposite."

Paz, a junior, will essentially be a tour guide for her teammates and coaches.

“Juliana is going to be able to give us an inside view, rather than getting maybe the superficial side of the country,” Rosen said.

For the past few weeks, the outside hitter has tried to teach her teammates about her native country.

Bower said the team has been learning different words every day, like "please," "thank you," and "excuse me."

“Juliana has been laughing at us all the time," sophomore setter Lexi Zimmerman said. "It’s funny from her point of view because she’ll screw up English words, and everyone will be like ‘Ooohhh.’ And now we’re butchering some of these words and she’s getting a kick out of it, too.”

The next step

Other Big Ten teams have recently embarked on international trips. Purdue and Illinois traveled to Europe last year.

Illinois showed a big improvement after the trip. The Fighting Illini went from 16-14 in 2007 to a third-place finish in the Big Ten with a 26-8 record last season. Purdue won seven more games last season than the year before.

“You usually see teams take a surge the year they go on these trips,” Rosen said.

Rosen has seen his team’s win totals increase in each of the last three seasons. And with much of last year’s team still intact, the trek to Brazil could be what Michigan needs to cement itself in the upper echelon of the Big Ten.

"This trip could be what puts us over the hump next year," Rosen said.