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December 5, 2002 | Stats

Karla Kucerkova set a new career high with 28 kills.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - In most instances, trends and tradition are good. But the American University volleyball team would have agreed that change is good after falling in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to No. 24 South Carolina by a score of 3-1 Thursday night at North Carolina's Carmichael Auditorium. Scores of the individual games were 30-10, 30-28, 23-30 and 30-19.

Victorious in every match in which they won the first game but 0-8 after losing the first game, the Eagles probably would have preferred to start anew on this December evening. However, it was the second match all year American recovered to win a game after losing the first two.

"We had a soft beginning," said AU Head Coach Barry Goldberg. "We knew we were better than that."

AU, which is now 0-4 in NCAA Tournament action, finishes the 2002 season with a 26-8 overall record after sweeping through the Patriot League with a 14-0 showing. The match marked American's second straight tournament appearance and fourth in six years.

The Gamecocks overpowered AU with incessant blocking and relentless defense. Redshirt sophomore Niece Curry, a 6-4 First-Team All-Southeastern Conference pick this year, finished with 18 kills. Cally Plummer and Berna Dwyer combined for 23 kills while Megan Hosp produced a match-high 46 assists for USC.

Karla Kucerkova, the 2002 Verizon Academic All-American Volleyball Player of the Year, put on an offensive display with a career-high 28 kills. She also climbed to the fifth spot on American's all-time kills with a career total of 1,167.

Sophomore Sabrina Vasconcelos set a season high of 40 assists for American and Natacha Cornaz had 11 kills. Senior Judit Szekelyhidi had five kills, three aces and eight digs in her final collegiate match.

The momentum-changing game three was stopped at 4-2 as the auditorium suffered its second power outage in two days. When play finally resumed, the Eagles went on a 16-4 run that transcended into their largest lead of the match at 24-12. They hit .393 as South Carolina found itself scrambling to recover from such a large deficit. It would be USC's lowest hitting game of the match with a .162 average.

But the Gamecocks came back from the shell-shock and broke from a topsy-turvy fourth game scoring. Curry hit a 1.000 with six kills as the team collaborated for a .481 hitting average.

In the first game, American was outblocked by a 9-1 margin as it hit just -.194. Kucerkova registered four of AU's eight kills. AU was down 5-0 before the Gamecocks committed a hitting error for the Eagles' first point. Cathy Fluegeman recorded American's first kill for a 12-2 score. At game point, AU rallied with two points including a block by Erin Allgaier before Plummer put the game away with an attack from the left side.

American went on a 7-2 run in the second game to take its first advantage at 9-8 courtesy of a Cutrina Biddulph kill. There would be several more lead changes as the Eagle offense finally woke up. Jessica Tuthill tallied a service ace to cut the deficit to 24-22 and Kucerkova, who totaled 12 kills in game two, fought back with a resounding solo block at middle to make it 27-all. USC's Curry blocked a Fluegeman attack for the final point.

South Carolina faces the winner of the other site match between the No. 11-seeded Tar Heels and Winthrop, which will be played 30 minutes after the AU-USC match.

The Eagles earned an automatic bid after completing their second-straight perfect Patriot League season and a 32-0 league showing. AU defeated Army in the Patriot League semifinals before defeating second-seeded Lehigh in the final, 3-1.

The Gamecocks are 22-6 overall and went 14-2 in the Southeastern Conference and were upset by Alabama in the SEC semifinals by a 3-0 margin. They received an at-large invitation to the tournament.