Wiesbaden’s Lyndsey Urick, center, prepares to spike the ball as teammate Elizabeth Troxel watches and Kaiserslautern’s Mariska Campbell gets ready to block during DODEA European volleyball championship pool-play action at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

Lyndsey Urick needed some time after the volleyball season.

The Wiesbaden graduate’s future was set in stone, playing collegiate volleyball at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. Urick experienced a lengthy break her junior season, missing out on basketball with a foot injury, so playing basketball and softball could have been a big risk.

Nobody would have faulted the 6-foot-5 Chicago native if she had put her future ahead of the present.

Well, that time proved to be just a couple of days.

“I knew I would regret it if I didn’t (play),” Urick said. “Just the games and Europeans, meeting all these people, I would never take that back for anything. So it wasn’t that hard of a decision. It was just a few days to decide and I was like, ‘OK, I will do it.’”

That decision led to Urick completing her season with two team championship titles and a runner-up medal, two first-team all-European selections (volleyball and softball) and one second-team honor (basketball).

To cap it off her magical final season, Urick earned the DODEA-Europe girls Athlete of the Year.

“It’s really special,” said Jennifer Yalden, the Wiesbaden softball coach and Urick’s mother. “I hope it proves to her that she has a long way to go as far as her athletic career playing volleyball in college. I think she’s just getting started.”

Urick stood out on the volleyball and basketball courts and the softball diamonds thanks to her height. No others in DODEA-Europe could match that.

Yet her coaches said her biggest attribute is her ability to learn from coaches.

“Lyndsey’s a very coachable young lady. She listens and she tries,” Wiesbaden girls basketball coach Kristin Kachmar said. “She listened to what we had to say, she tried to do some different things that she hadn’t done in the past, and it was a successful season because of that.”

She also knows how to step up in big moments.

Wiesbaden’s Lyndsey Urick, left, backs down Baumholder’s Alex Barreto, center, during a game at Wiesbaden High School in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

During the Warriors’ 25-19, 9-25, 25-19, 25-17 win over Kaiserslautern in the Division I volleyball title game on Oct. 29, the middle hitter slammed a match-high 24 kills.

During Wiesbaden’s 43-34 win over a balanced Ramstein squad in the Division I girls basketball championship game, Urick, who had at least four double-doubles up to that point in the tournament, chipped in eight points at center to complement freshman Brandi Stanford’s 22-point performance.

Then in the spring, Urick was called upon in the final game again, going against Ramstein’s Madison Mihalic in the pitcher’s circle. The Warrior senior matched her counterpart with nine strikeouts and added a double and triple at the plate in the 3-2 loss.

“She was extremely important, especially in that championship game when a lot of pressure was put on her as the pitcher. She stepped up and performed,” Yalden said. “It’s going to be exciting because the more pressure that’s put on her as I’ve seen her grow as an athlete, the more she steps up to perform to the task at hand.”

During that time, Urick still played with her local volleyball club. She moved from the Damen 2 to Damen 1 team and practiced with the U-20 squad last week before her move back to the States.

Urick said it was a tough balancing act – but one she gladly handled.

Wiesbaden’s Lyndsey Urick slings the ball toward the plate in the DODEA-Europe Division I softball championship game Saturday, May 20, 2023, at Kaiserslautern, Germany. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)

“I was still doing what I love, which made me happy because I definitely feel it when I play volleyball, it affects my mood,” she said. “I’m happier when I play volleyball.”

Now Urick moves onto NCAA Division II volleyball at Ferris State. The Bulldogs won their eighth Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title in the past nine season last fall.

The Wiesbaden graduate is expected to make an impact right away in the middle of the lineup.

“I was on a Zoom meeting with them last week, and they said they’re just going to throw me straight in, which kind of freaked me out, but I have some reassurance from the people that have helped me with volleyball,” Urick said. “So, I’m not too worried about that.”