July 30, 2003

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech women's basketball player Ieva Kublina is keeping busy this summer playing for her national team in the World Championship for Young Women tournament being played in Sibenik, Croatia.

Kublina, a First Team All-BIG EAST selection this past season, has helped the Latvian National Team to a 5-0 record in Group B in the preliminary round of the event. Latvia advances to Friday's quarterfinals against Croatia, the No. 4 team from Group A. In the five contests, Kublina is averaging 17.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game and ranks first in offensive rebounds (3.8), fourth in scoring, fifth in free throw percentage (75.9, 22-29), sixth in defensive rebounds (4.4) and tenth in 3-pt. percentage (42.9, 6-14).

In Latvia's first game, a 69-58 win over Australia last Friday, Kublina had 15 points, seven boards and four blocks before putting together a 19-point, nine-rebound, six-block effort in Saturday's 75-63 victory against Argentina. Kublina had an outstanding game in the 71-69 overtime win against Russia on Sunday with 14 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks then tallied 24 points in only 22 minutes in Latvia's 88-42 Tuesday win over Tunisia. In her final game in the preliminary round Wednesday, she had 16 points, eight rebounds and one block in a narrow 81-79 win over the Republic of China.

The United States won Group A with a 5-0 record. Other teams in the Group A include Brazil, France, Korea and the Czech Republic. The semifinals are sch