Miami Volleyball Receives AVCA Academic Team Award
July 26, 2010
Lexington, Ky. – The University of Miami volleyball team was honored as one of a record 450 college and high school institutions to receive the 2009-10 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Academic Team Award, as announced by the AVCA office in Lexington, Ky.
With 450 schools receiving the Academic Team Award for the 2009-10 academic year, the AVCA set a new record, smashing the previous years’ total of 409 and sets a new all-time high for this award. Of the 450 schools, the University of Miami was one of 94 NCAA Division I teams to receive the honor.
The `Canes were also one of just 18 schools that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009 to receive this year’s Team Academic Award.
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.
En route to earning an at-large bid to the 2009 NCAA Tournament [Coral Gables Regional], the Miami Hurricanes volleyball team was not only stellar in their efforts on the court, but once again in the classroom. UM sophomore Lane Carico and senior Maria Andersson were each selected to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Team following the playing season. Andersson would also receive this year’s Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award winners celebrating academic and athletic achievement.
“There is no better way to gauge the success of a sport than to track the accomplishments of the people who participate,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. “Each of these 450 teams represents 12-15 really smart kids. What a great day for the sport of volleyball!”
For Miami, nine student-athletes carried a GPA of 3.2 or better throughout the 2009-10 school year, with five of those student-athletes carrying a 3.5 or higher. The Hurricanes are one of 119 first-time recipients of the AVCA Academic Team Award, while representing one of 15 newcomers to the list in both Division I and Division II status through the NCAA.
The Team Academic Award has become one of the AVCA’s fastest growing awards programs, seeing an impressive surge in teams honored over the past several years. The program has increased by over 300 percent in the last 10 years, and by 79 percent in the past three years alone.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program’s 18-year history, and over 2,900 awards have been given out in all.
For more information on the AVCA Team Academic Award program, click here.
For more information on the University of Miami volleyball team, please log on to www.hurricanesports.com. Once there, you will find up-to-date news, stats and information regarding the Hurricanes volleyball program.
