July 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- Two-time All-American Asia Kaczor has been selected to represent her country of Poland as a member of the women's volleyball team at the 2008 Olympics next month in China. She becomes USC's 21st women's volleyball player to compete in the Olympics, joining former libero Nicole Davis, who earlier this week was named to the United States Olympic Team.

The 6-4 outside hitter earned 2007 AVCA All-America first team honors and led USC to the NCAA national semifinals with a 29-5 record. She also earned AVCA All-Pacific Region and All-Pac-10 Conference honors during the season.

She set four USC single-season records last year for kills (659), attempts (1,542), points (746.5) and points per game (5.82). In her two-year career at USC, she also registered two school career records for kills per game (5.05) and points per game (5.74) while hitting .300 overall.

In 2007, Kaczor had a 5.15 kills-per-game average and hit .301 (659-195-1542). She also had 44 assists (0.34 apg), 40 service aces (0.31 sapg), 281 digs (2.20 dpg) and 83 blocks (0.65 bpg). She recorded double figure kills in 32 of 34 matches this season and had nine double-doubles on the season, including a 34-kill, 17-dig effort against No. 25 Long Beach State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

She was named Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week three times this season, as well as earning AVCA National Player of the Week once. On Nov. 16, Kaczor set USC and Pac-10 Conference single match records with 45 kills and 100 attempts against No. 5 Washington.

The USC women's volleyball program has had 19 previous appearances in the Olympics (18 by those who represented the U.S. and Terry Place who played for West Germany in 1984). Tauna Vanderweghe was an alternate while current USC head coach Mick Haley was the head coach for Team USA in the 2000 Olympics (Sydney).