Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Volleyball earns 11th Straight AVCA Academic Award
07/25/2016 | 1:46:00 | Women's Volleyball
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois University volleyball team has received its 11th straight American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for its performance in the classroom during the 2015-16 academic year, the AVCA recently announced.
SIU is part of a record-breaking year for the AVCA Team Academic Award, as a total of 762 teams received the honor, besting last year's mark of 757. The Salukis are one of nine schools from the Missouri Valley Conference to earn a spot on the list, joining Drake, Evansville, Indiana State, Illinois State, Loyola University-Chicago, Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Wichita State.
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.
"Congratulations to the coaches and institutions that won the 2016 AVCA Team Academic Award," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "It is no accident that a volleyball coaches association recognizes academic excellence as a team, rather than an individual, achievement. Players influence each other, both in execution on the court and discipline in the classroom."
The Salukis posted a team grade-point average of 3.634 during the 2015-16 academic year. Three Salukis were selected as MVC Scholar Athletes, with Taylor Pippen garnering First Team honors while Andrea Estrada and Abby Barrow earned inclusion on the Scholar Athlete Honorable Mention team.
The AVCA Team Academic Award 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 475 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 762.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 24-year history, with exactly 7,640 awards been given out in total.
SIU opens the 2016 season Aug. 26-27 at the IUPUI Invitational in Indianapolis, Ind. The Salukis will face Central Michigan, IUPUI and Duquesne at the two-day tournament.
