LEXINGTON, Ky. — The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced today that Campbellsville University women's volleyball is one of 822 teams to earn the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2016-2017 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 764 to set an all-time high.
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.
The Lady Tigers were one of 51 NAIA programs to earn the honor after recording a 3.33 team GPA in the 2016 season.
CU had five Lady Tigers earns Academic All-Conference honors with at least 3.25 GPAs -
Annija Abolina,
Maria Coelho,
Julia Fonseca, Kim Miller and Kristyn Moore. Abolina was also named an NCCAA and NAIA Scholar-Athlete with a GPA above a 3.50.
Campbellsville finished the 2016 season as NCCAA Runner-ups. The Lady Tigers compiled a 30-14 record, while coach
Amy Zink was named the MSC Coach of the Year and Libero
Jessie Pendleton earned Libero of the Year honors.
CU serves up the 2017 season on the road at Bethel University on Aug. 22.
The AVCA Team Academic Award, celebrating its 25th year, is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients have increased every single year but two, while amassing a 532 team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 822.
With 2016-2017 marking the 25th anniversary of the award, the AVCA is introducing additional honors to schools that have a minimum Team Academic Award streak of 15 years, and also for schools that scored the highest GPAs in their respective divisions. In order for a school to be awarded as an honor roll recipient, their division had to reach a minimum number of nominations. For NCAA Division I, II, III, and girls high school, their nomination number allows for a top-25 honor roll. For NAIA women, a top-10, with two-year college, collegiate men, collegiate beach, and high school boys garnering a top-5.
Additionally, schools that reached their Dig Pink fundraising goals through the Side-Out Foundation will continue to be honored. The 2016-2017 season saw Dig Pink participants and AVCA Team Academic Award winners raise $91,671 for breast cancer research.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 25-year history, with exactly 8,461 awards been given out in total.
