LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced today that 1,313 teams have earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2019-2020 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 1,130 to set an all-time high. The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) landed nine of the 171 NCAA Division II women's teams recognized.
The nine (9) GLIAC programs to earn AVCA Team Academic Award are: Davenport, Ferris State, Grand Valley State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Saginaw Valley State, Wayne State, and Parkside.
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 AVCA Team Academic Award, celebrating its 28th 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.
