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Kucerkova Honored as PL Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Outside hitter was the first Verizon Academic All-American Player of the Year for both AU and the PL

July 14, 2003

Karla Kucerkova continues to set a new standard for AU athletics.

WASHINGTON — American University’s Karla Kucerkova (Olomouc, Czech Republic/Brno) was named the Patriot League Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year as announced today by the league sports information directors. She is the first AU student-athlete and the first Patriot League volleyball player to win this award.

It has been a year of firsts for Kucerkova, who was the first Patriot League and American University student-athlete to be named a Verizon Academic All-American Player of the Year when she earned the volleyball distinction in the fall of 2002. Twice she has been named to the Verizon Academic District II First Team.

“This is a well-deserved award for a first-class student-athlete,” said head coach Barry Goldberg. “Karla has meant a great deal to our program and the University.”

Graduating in the spring of 2003 with 3.98 grade-point average (GPA) in business administration and finance, Kucerkova will begin work towards her MBA this fall while playing in her fourth and final season at American. For her efforts, she was given the Barbara J. Reimann Scholarship this spring to continue her post-graduate work.

The outside hitter has earned both Patriot League Player of the Year honors and the Volleyball Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in the two years that AU has been a member of the league. She has led the Eagles to two consecutive undefeated seasons in the league (28-0) and a pair of Patriot League Championships that earned AU the right to compete in the last two NCAA Tournaments.

Individually, she was named to the AVCA Northeast Regional All-American First Team in 2002 after garnering her second straight All-Patriot League First Team nomination. Against No. 24 South Carolina in the NCAAs, Kucerkova set a new career high of 28 kills against the Gamecocks as the Eagles fell, 3-1, in the first round. She also led the Patriot League in kills for the second straight year and remains on the leaderboard for hitting percentage.

Kucerkova reached the 1,000-kill plateau against Colgate on Nov. 1, 2002 and currently ranks second all-time in total kills among program leaders. Last season she set a new school record of career kills per game with 4.16 while ranking fourth all-time in single-season kills per game with 4.58.

American University, which fields a 19-sport NCAA Division I athletics program featuring 10 women’s sports and nine for men, recently completed its second year of membership in the Patriot League. Since joining the Patriot League, the University has captured league championships in men’s cross country, women’s cross country, women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball, and a regular-season title in men’s basketball.

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.