FISU Kazan: Jackie Tessier in Poland

The FISU Universiade games begin in Kazan, Russia at the start of next week. Ex-Queen's varsity striker and current KUSC OCSL Women's player Jackie Tessier is playing with the women's soccer team and has agreed to send in updates every few days, discussing her travels and experiences representing Canada on the international stage.

The Queen's Journal profiled her in this week's issue as a lead-up to her trip overseas.

Read on for her first blog entry.

Hey all, I thought I'd send in a blog entry every few days or so from overseas to share my experiences from the FISU Universiade in Kazan, Russia.

The starting lineup vs Poland, Tessier is #16, back row

Today is our third day in Wroclaw, Poland where we are holding our training camp. We arrived here on June 25 after a very long day/night of travel. So far, we have had two sessions as a team as well as a friendly match against the Polish WNT. We unfortunately lost that game 4-0, but it was truly an honour to play for my country in that game. It was a really special moment to walk out as one of the starting 11 and hear our national anthem play in an international friendly.

The sessions have been going well for what we've done so far. Other than tryouts in BC, this is the first few days playing all together. Coming from all over Canada means bringing together all different styles of play and tactics that need to mesh together into our final product. It is coming along slowly but surely, as all the girls here are extremely knowledgeable, talented and willing to lead where they can. We had a meeting with the strikers this morning to discuss yesterday's match, and the discussion was so productive and useful as everyone had really good input and ideas.

Personally, I am feeling pretty good out here. Pretty well adjusted to the new time zone and the food! Looking forward to continuing to grow as a player and as a team throughout my/our time here. We have a video/tactical meeting later tonight, but for now, off into downtown Wroclaw for some leisure time and sightseeing!