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American Volleyball to Host PL Tournament as No. 1 Seed
Eagles finish with perfect regular season record for second year in a row

November 18, 2002

Freshman Cutrina Biddulph

WASHINGTON — American University, will host the 2002 Patriot League Championships on Friday night and Saturday afternoon at Bender Arena in a weekend that will include a special Friday night viewing of the men's basketball game against Missouri.

Currently on a 16-match winning streak, the Eagles - the 2001 champions - finished the 2002 regular season with a perfect 14-0 record and a 24-6 overall showing. Lehigh earned the No. 2 spot followed by No. 3 Bucknell and No. 4 Army. Both the Bison and the Black Knights grabbed their bids in the final weekend of play.

On Friday, the Mountain Hawks will face off against the Bison at 5 p.m. The Eagles and the Black Knights will battle at 7 p.m. Following the conclusion of Friday night's matches, Bender Arena will play host to a video board screening of the American vs. Missouri game that is being aired at 8 p.m. EST.

The championship will be played on Saturday at 4 p.m. with a live broadcast on Comcast SportsNet. ESPN announcer Chris Marlowe and USA Today columnist Christine Brennan will provide commentary for the match. The winner of the tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which begins with the first round on Dec. 5.

In 2001, American beat Bucknell 3-0 in the semifinals before capturing the championship with a 3-1 victory over Army to advance to its third NCAA Tournament. junior Karla Kucerkova, the 2001 Patriot League Player of the Year, was also named the Patriot League Tournament MVP. Later, she was one of 10 AU volleyball players to be named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. Kucerkova also named the Patriot League Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a GPA of 3.96. She hit a milestone on Nov. 1 when she connected with her 1,000th kill in a 3-0 sweep of Colgate.

Courtney Mulford

American, which is ranked third behind Temple and Notre Dame in the Division I Northeast Regional Coaches Poll, leads the conference in six of eight team categories including hitting percentage (.364), opponent hitting percentage (.134), assists (14.33), kills (16.59) and service aces (2.70). With history on their side, the Eagles are 10-1 this season at Bender Arena, with its one loss to then-No. 3 Florida.

Sophomore Cathy Fluegeman leads the league in hitting with a .448 percentage followed by Kucerkova (.405) and Cutrina Biddulph (.347). Kucerkova is ranked first in kills (4.87 kpg) while Biddulph is tops in blocks with 1.15 bpg. Sophomore setter Courtney Mulford leads the Patriot League in two categories: assists with 11.37 apg and service aces with 0.73 apg.

Other leaders for AU are senior Judit Szekelyhidi, who is six in hitting percentage (.305) and sophomore Sabrina Vasconcelos, who is fourth in service aces (0.50 apg). Junior libero Natalie Hand is fifth in digs with 3.40 dpg.

The Eagles are no stranger to success this season with all but one of their six losses have been to teams ranked or receiving votes on the USA Today/AVCA Division 1 Coaches Top 25 Poll. Those teams include Florida, Arizona, UC-Santa Barbara, Wisconsin, Louisville. American’s sixth loss is credited to Southland Conference power University of Texas-Arlington. AU’s biggest victories this season have been over a votes-getting Duke University and regionally ranked Georgtown in a 3-2 battle at Bender Arena on Oct. 22.

Karla Kucerkova

Along the way, American has captured the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Tournament and was an American Volleyball Classic finalist in September.

Nationally, AU is seventh in hitting percentage and eighth in aces per game with 240 in 96 games (2.50 apg). Individually, Mulford is 19th in aces per game.

Six times this season an Eagle has been named to an all-tournament team. Kucerkova was named to the Louisville Classic and Ramada Inn Invitational All-Tournament Teams while Szekelyhidi and Mulford earned nods at the Ramada Inn Invitational and at the American Volleyball Classic. At the Duke Classic, Biddulph earned distinction as the team’s only recipient.

Mulford (1) and Kucerkova (2) have both been named Patriot League Players of the Week this season while Biddulph earned three Rookie of the Week awards in 2002. Mulford was also named the ECAC Division 1 Volleyball Player of the Week in September.

Kucerkova and Hand were named two of seven student-athletes to the first team of the 2002 Verizon Academic All-District II Volleyball Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). With 12 student-athletes selected for the first and second teams, the two will be placed on the ballot for the Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America Volleyball Team to be announced on Thurs., Dec. 5. To be nominated for the honor, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average and a starter or key reserve her team.

American University, which fields a 19-sport NCAA Division I athletics program featuring 10 women’s sports and nine for men, recently completed its inaugural year of membership in the Patriot League. The University had an extremely successful year to date on respective fields of play, capturing league championships in men's cross country, women's cross country, men’s soccer, women's soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis, and regular-season titles in men’s basketball and women’s lacrosse.

Chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893, American University features students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 160 nations worldwide.