AUBURN, Ala. — Four years of struggle and pain — and maybe even a little doubt — was put to rest with one blow of a buzzer for Jence Rhoads.

Before the wail of the final horn had faded into the oppressive and humid air inside Centre Sportif Claude Robillard in Montreal, an arena that hosted Olympic events in 1976, Rhoads and her United States women's handball team realized just what they had accomplished in beating Canada, 26-16.

Earlier at Auburn University, the U.S. team had narrowly escaped with a 22-20 victory over their foes from the north.

“We qualified for the Pan Am Games!” Rhoads cried.

That's a big deal for a team that had its hopes of participating in the Pan American Games snuffed out convincingly by Uruguay three years ago.

“We've done a whole 180,” Rhoads said.

And now the team is on the cusp of the ultimate goal: the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.

But first, the focus is on Lima, Peru next summer.

A gold medal there and Rhoads will be Tokyo bound for the Summer Games.

“We have a lot of development and growth to do before next summer,” Rhoads said. “We've been working four years for this moment and to have that come, especially the way it came — by 10 goals — it was a sense of relief and pure joy and excitement.

“It's a huge step.”

It's been a pursuit of passion for Rhoads, whose mother, Melinda, was a member of the U.S. women's handball team that came painfully close to earning a medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Melinda traveled to Montreal with some of her teammates from that Olympic team to watch her daughter play.

“I was ecstatic that she was there, to see her and some of the 1984 team up in the stands,” Jence Rhoads said. “They were very proud of us.”

That 1984 team came one goal short of winning the bronze medal. It is still the most successful U.S. handball team to date.

The U.S. women's handball team hasn't qualified for the Olympics since 1996.

Rhoads wouldn't even be in Auburn with the U.S. national team if it were not for her mother.

Four years ago, Melinda attended a reunion for the 1984 team and learned of the U.S. handball residence program at Auburn University.

Jence was still playing basketball in Europe at the time, but was looking for a change.

She attended a tryout and made the team.

Rhoads is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Kinesiologyat Auburn University and working on her dissertation.

Rhoads grappled with the decision to give up her basketball career at first.

“I was excited for the new adventure, but also a little bit sad thinking about not playing basketball anymore,” she said. “Basketball will always be my first love.”

The transition was difficult initially for Rhoads and her handball teammates. The women's program was basically beginning again from scratch.

“A lot of us didn't grow up playing handball,” Rhoads said. “There was a substantial learning curve there.”

But now, with stability on the roster, the results have come.

“We've had a pretty consistent group of women playing together and learning each other's games,” Rhoads said. “That has worked wonders.”

Rhoads is in a familiar role on the handball court.

She predominantly plays a position in handball that closely correlates to a point guard in basketball.

Rhoads certainly knows how to be a point guard. She played that position most of her basketball life, scoring 2,172 career points at Slippery Rock High and becoming the only player in Vanderbilt history to finish a career with more than 1,100 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds.

In Europe, she was named Point Guard of the Year twice.

Ironically, Rhoads did have to adapt to a simple skill when she traded in a basketball for a handball.

“Throwing,” Rhoads said. “It sound silly, but I had never played an overhand-throwing sport. It's not like I didn't know how to throw a ball, but is was definitely something new.”

Rhoads also sometimes plays a more defensive-centric position.

Rhoads said defense was always the strength of the team because “defense is just heart.”

Now, the offense is coming around.

Rhoads can't even fathom how far she has come as a player in four years.

“I would love to watch the game against Uruguay to see what I was like as a player then,” Rhoads said. “You obviously know you're different. You feel different. You're more confident.”

The team took a short break after beating Canada in early September, but has resumed practice again.

In that downtime, Rhoads, who will turn 30 on New Years Eve, had the chance to reflect on what basketball and handball has brought to her life.

“It's amazing how many countries I've been to and how many new places I've seen and how many new people I've met,” Rhoads said. “It's a little bit overwhelming, but in a good way. I just have so much gratitude and joy that has come to me because of, basically, a ball.”