Once every four years, athletes join together on an international stage to display their skills and showcase their country's colors.

In addition to the Olympics, though, there are the Maccabiah Games, which are held once every four years in Israel and feature some of the top Jewish athletes from more than 30 countries.

This past summer, Brandeis sent two of its top volleyball players, Becca Fischer '13 and current co-captain Yael Einhorn '14, to the 19th Maccabiah Games to compete for the United States, display their national pride and even dominate a few volleyball matches along the way.

Einhorn reflected that her most memorable moment at the games was the opening ceremony.

"It's a huge area, all the seats are filled with parents and athletes," she said. "You walk around; it's amazing. We're like stars over there."

The feeling at the games extended to life around the volleyball court as well as on it.

"Being a Division III athlete, I still think that Division I is a whole other world," explained Einhorn, "so that was cool for me, being able to compare myself with them."

The U.S. team, squaring off against athletes from Chile, Brazil, Ukraine and host Israel, stormed out to a 3-0 win over Chile in their opener before suffering defeats at the hands of Israel, Ukraine and Brazil. While Team USA dropped the third place match against Brazil, they still statistically rested at the top of the pack.

Unlike most of the other teams, who used professional players, Team USA was composed mainly of collegiate athletes. While the final standings may reflect the disparity, the reality of the situation was much closer.

Team USA scored 252 points for the tournament, less than 50 points behind tournament leader Ukraine and gave up 272 points against, a figure lower than both Brazil's and Chile's teams.

"Unlike other teams who have played together for a long time, we're just meeting with a week to practice." said Einhorn.
"It's tough, you can't expect too much, but there's a fun aspect, meeting new people and new athletes."

For Fischer, the tournament was more of a last hurrah than anything else, and in the end, she was more than happy to go along for the ride.

"The Maccabiah Games were my way of getting one last chance to play volleyball at a highly competitive level," she said.
Fischer, who spent four years as a member of the Judges and is set to begin law school this fall, has used volleyball as a way to shape her life.

"It was one more opportunity to play a sport that has been an extremely large part of my life for the last eight years," she explained. "Volleyball helped shape my high school and college years, so having this opportunity to play overseas right before starting law school is one that I'm extremely thankful for."

At the end of it all, Einhorn, Fischer and the rest of Team USA had plenty of memories from their time at the 19th Maccabiah Games.