Kuebler Starts Quickly for USC Volleyball Team

USC volleyball player Kelly Kuebler grew up in Seal Beach, a lazy community tucked in the northwest corner of Orange County.

In her hometown, the biggest public disturbance is usually the annual Seal Beach Open pro beach volleyball tournament, where everyone is out for a tan and a good time.

For her, crime, gangs and other problems facing South-Central Los Angeles seemed like a world away.

Until last April, when the Los Angeles riots struck close to the USC campus, just two months after she signed a letter of intent. And last week, when USC football player Jon McGee was struck in the arm by a stray bullet from a gang-related shooting near campus.

Both incidents reminded Kuebler that it’s a violent world. But she’s quick to remind you it’s nothing to panic about. Although aware of the problems near the campus, she keeps it in proper perspective.

Transferring? She never even considered it.

“I grew up in Seal Beach, where it’s pretty quiet,” she said. “But being up here, it opens your eyes.

“You feel sorry for the people who live here. The riots are over, it’s not in the news much anymore, but there are still problems. Stores aren’t being rebuilt. You see gang members drive by near campus.”

Kuebler lives in campus dormitories and said she feels safe. But what happened to McGee, a friend and fellow freshman, “really hit home.”

“You have to take some precautions here,” she said. “I never walk alone on campus at night. You have to think smart here.”

And so far, Kuebler has been playing smart, too.

A 6-foot outside hitter, Kuebler is in a position few freshmen find themselves in with a program ranked in the top 10.

She’s not just playing, she’s starting.

After a knee injury to one player and the departure of another, Kuebler, who only a year ago was playing at Los Alamitos High, stepped in as the starting outside hitter for the sixth-ranked Trojans (10-2).

Kuebler ranks second on the team in digs (150) and fourth in kills (92) entering the Trojans’ match Friday night against Oregon State.

One of her best matches came in USC’s three-game sweep of California last weekend. She finished with 13 digs and 10 kills.

Adjusting from high school volleyball to the college level is tough for any player. But it’s even tougher in the Pacific 10 Conference, in which six teams are ranked in the top 25, including No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Stanford.

USC Coach Lisa Love said Kuebler has made the transition, but not without refining some of her passing and hitting skills.

“She has handled it by going out there and being overwhelmed,” Love said. “It has been on-the-job training.”

Said Kuebler: “What cracks me up is how I used to read about Bev Oden at Stanford and (USC’s) Katie Haller and think, ‘Wow.’ But it’s funny now, when I turn on TV to watch a match, and I’m on there playing with them. It’s a trip. It’s like I’m still in a daze.”

With the experience Kuebler is getting as a freshman, Love figures the outside hitter will be a future All-America candidate. Kuebler mentions it casually, but she also wants to lead the Trojans to a national championship. They haven’t won one since 1981.

Kuebler had figured to be a role player this year, spending most of her freshman season learning the USC system, adjusting to practices, classes and campus life.

But the plans took a sudden twist when Marcela Morales, targeted as the starting outside hitter, went home to Chile in the off-season. In July, Morales told Love she wasn’t returning because of family reasons.

That left Kuebler and Debbie Martin, a sophomore who was recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery last spring, to battle for the starting spot.

Martin was sidelined with more knee problems just after practice began, leaving Kuebler as the starter.

“Kelly’s by far the most technically advanced freshman we’ve had here,” Love said. “She’s an excellent passer, has speed and jumping ability and is very coachable. She has all the tools to be a top outside hitter.”

Kuebler was somewhat of a find for Love and her staff.

They began scouting her after her sophomore year, when she played on the Los Alamitos junior varsity and the Magnum club team. She was promoted to the varsity as a junior, earned a starting job and led the Griffins to the first round of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs.

Love saw a different player during Kuebler’s senior year, when Kuebler led Los Alamitos to their first Empire League title, a 14-2 record and the section quarterfinals.

Over the summer, Kuebler had improved her play at the Junior Elite camp in Colorado Springs, making a 12-member squad that won a tournament in Canada. She said her ongoing training under Coach Charlie Wade at Magnum also moved her play to a new level.

She began getting more sets at Los Alamitos than she did in the previous club season, and she was putting the ball away.

“We took our secondary look,” Love said, “and we liked what we saw.”

The rest was a formality for Kuebler. She took visits to USC, Colorado and the University of San Diego, but when the Trojans made an offer, she was quick to accept.

Several of her uncles, aunts and cousins attended USC. Her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years, former Los Alamitos wide receiver Tyler Cashman, signed with the Trojans in 1991.

“I was determined,” she said. “My whole goal was to come to USC someday. That was why I played volleyball.”

“If I didn’t get a scholarship, I might have come here and walked on or not played at all.”