The Point Loma volleyball team was selected for the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award after posting a team grade point average of 3.397 during the 2014-15 academic year.
The Sea Lions were one of 399 NCAA teams to have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the season. This is the first year PLNU was eligible for the honor, as 2014-15 marked its first year as an active member in the NCAA.
The award, 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.
“A hearty congratulations to all the volleyball coaches whose teams won the AVCA Team Academic Award,” said Lexington, Ky.-based AVCA executive director Kathy DeBoer. “Teams do not succeed in the classroom by accident any more so than they do on the court. “The same coach who taught them volleyball skills cared enough about their academic achievement to gather their grades, calculate their GPA and submit a nomination on their behalf. In doing so, these coaches sent a clear message that classroom success is just as important as volleyball success. All involved should celebrate this award.”
The award has become one of the AVCA’s fastest-growing awards programs, seeing an impressive surge in teams honored over the past several years. Since the 2000-01 season, the number of recipients has increased every year except one, while AVCA has amassed a 476-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 752.