Lee University is one of 764 colleges and universities to have earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2015-2016 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 757 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.
"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."
Said Lee head coach and assistant athletic director Andrea Hudson: "It is always great for the volleyball team to win an award, but it is especially great when it involves the classroom. The players are working hard to do well academically and I am so very proud of this accomplishment."
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 477 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 764.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 24-year history, with exactly 7,642 awards having been given out in total.