Arizona's 'very relaxed,' 'confident' Puk Stubbe adjusting to life away from the Netherlands

UA freshman Puk Stubbe had grown accustomed to seeing her family in the bleachers at every game.

After playing beach volleyball in the Netherlands for the Women’s National Team for six years, Stubbe knew she was ready for something different. With that came a new challenge in her life: playing volleyball for the first time without her parents and two sisters in attendance. Stubbe and the Wildcats (3-0) will play in the Springhill Suites Invitational in Las Cruces this weekend. They’ll face UTEP and New Mexico State on Friday, and Northwestern on Saturday.

“I’m still really a family girl,” Stubbe said. “I’m always with my family. If I’m going to a game or tournament … my family is coming, so now I have to go alone.”

Stubbe, 21, said she grew tired of beach volleyball as she neared college age. Her passion for the indoor game, however, stayed strong. Over the summer, Stubbe began the process of becoming a collegiate athlete. UA coach Dave Rubio offered her a scholarship, and Stubbe fell in love with the Wildcats’ indoor program; she committed to the UA.

“She’s very relaxed. She’s very confident, nothing really surprises her,” Rubio said. “I still think it’s going to take a little time just to get used to the student-athlete experience here and the responsibilities that go with the day-to-day activities that she’s got to stay on top of … I think that we’re probably not going to see her best until she gets real comfortable with that.”

Stubbe has also been adjusting to a new style of play, one that she says is unlike anything she has seen before.

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“The whole system and everything is different,” Stubbe said. “My brain is hurting after the training because I have to think so much and I’ve only been here for about 2 1/2 weeks and we already have games.”

But being a student-athlete and adapting to a new style of play is the least of her worries. Stubbe says the hardest part about this new chapter in her life is being away from the ones she loves most. She grew up in Gouda, a city famous for its cheese, and attended high school at ROC Mondriaan in The Hague.

“I was always there with my mom or with my dad and then if there was a tournament that they didn’t come, my oldest sister was there because she had to play,” Stubbe said. “So there was always someone close to me and now, it’s like, I’m so far away. I’ve never been so far away from my family and having a nine-hour difference than everybody. It was really tough.”

Stubbe isn’t the only international player on the team who knows the feeling of missing home. She is roommates with Mexico native Sofia Maldonado Diaz and lives in an apartment across from Germany native Merle Weidt and Turkish-born Dilara Gedikoglu.

“I think we have the same experience, we’re all so far away from home,” Stubbe said. “If you say ‘Yeah, I’m missing my mother,’ they’ll be like ‘Yeah, I know what you mean.’ … We help each other out a lot.”