In this interview series, The Gazelle asks select student athletes about their experiences on NYU Abu Dhabi’s various sports teams to learn more about their histories, motivations and reasons for committing to a team.

Meredith Raymer, Class of 2020, came to NYUAD from Kansas City, U.S.A., and has played volleyball since she was 10 years old. She was NYUAD’s Athlete of the Month in December 2016. The coach who nominated her cited Meredith’s “disciplined play with time and manners” and called her “very dedicated and a team player.”

TG: You play on the women’s volleyball team at NYUAD. Could you tell us how you chose to make that your sport of choice?

MR: When I was younger, I played all sorts of sports: basketball, volleyball and football. I was quite young at that time, so my decision-making wasn’t [quite robust], but basically, I liked this one teacher more than my other grade school sports teachers. I stopped playing basketball first, then swapped football for dance at one point and eventually found myself spending so much time playing volleyball that I stuck with just that.

It wasn’t so much the mechanics of the sport that got me passionate about volleyball. I think it was mostly because of the team I was fortunate to be part of. We did more than just practice together: on game nights, we’d eat meals together, and as we grew older, we would go to the gym together. Every single Saturday throughout the season, we’d be sitting all day at a tournament from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., which was great for fostering team spirit.

TG: Tell us about your experience playing volleyball.

MR: [I’m] from the U.S. Midwest, so sports are an intense thing where I come from. I went to a Catholic school, but even though I was not in the big public school setting that most people are imagining when they think about varsity sports, sports were still a huge deal. We played competitively; the school season would be from August to November, and from November through April, you’d be playing on your competitive team against other high schools. If you did well enough in those games, you’d play in a national tournament. Once that ended, you’d go back to training for the next season. Volleyball training and games have always [been] a major part of my life.

TG: Given that you came from a high school with a very competitive sports culture, how have you found the transition into NYUAD’s Athletics community?

MR: The high school I went to had a very strong volleyball program. I did not play that year, but before I left for NYUAD, we finished second in the state. Naturally, players got weeded out according to their skill levels in that team. Competitiveness is a good thing, I suppose, but sports teams here have a different mentality. They want us to learn. In athletic endeavors at NYUAD, all players have a chance to enjoy the game, and I really enjoy that. Even though our sports teams may be less competitive here, I think we are doing something right here.

In the U.S., a lot of politics go into whether you make it to the starting lineup. It can depend on who knows whom, [and] there’s a lot of drama around making it in the team. To not have that drama — I really love that here.

TG: Could you give us an example of how you’ve found sports teams at NYUAD to be more accommodating?

MR: To me, the experience of joining the volleyball team was very simple. I asked around and found out where and when the team trained, and then after a couple of practice passes, I was on the team. That’s it.

TG: How has this more casual relationship with sports shown itself in your time at NYUAD?

MR: For instance, frequently I’ll go play intramurals with the SERCO staff and the security guards on Monday nights. They are amazing players! We have different levels of technical training, but these players have such a drive to get the ball over the net. They play with such passion that it doesn’t matter if they position their feet just right or strike the ball in the standard way. It’s just such a fun way to play the game.

There’s also a casual volleyball team in the city, the Abu Dhabi Volleyball Club, that I am kind of on. I met one of the players on the team through the Abu Dhabi Intercollegiate Sports League. ADVC needed an extra player one day, so she texted me saying “just show up at this time.” Afterwards she added me to a WhatsApp group, and now I can essentially come as often as I want. It’s not a problem if I cannot make it to ADVC games, and I don’t have to spend too much time on the bench if I do come. In that sense, it’s a very laid-back chance to play sports.

TG: It sounds like a lot of your life outside the classroom revolves around volleyball.

MR: Right now, that definitely holds true, but thinking back to last season, once the ADISL season ended, I found myself getting restless because there was not enough going on. Right now, the team practices three times per week — 6:45 a.m. on Mondays, 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — so we get a lot of time on the field, which is great.

TG: How do you feel about that early Monday practice?

MR: It can be tough in the sense that you often get out of practice around 8:15 a.m., which means that if you have a 9:00 a.m. class, you find yourself choosing between a short shower or a quick breakfast. You cannot really take your time the way you might want to. At the same time, I really like that early start. You get up, go to the performance gym and play, and get it done with so you can start your day well.

TG: Student athletes at NYUAD have significant commitments to their academic work. How does that double requirement on their time reflect on how they perform as teams?

MR: For me, having to devote time to playing volleyball can be a helpful thing. If I’ve been studying all day, I can leave for an hour, or even two hours, and go do something active. When I come back to study afterwards, I feel like I’m mentally in a much better place. It’s also somehow nice to have something that cuts into your time. Without volleyball, I’d have big gaps of time in my schedule blocked off for studying that I might waste on being unproductive. If I tell myself that I have to get my work done by a certain time so I am free to play volleyball, it makes my day so much more productive and gives it a healthy structure.