Both the Chattanooga indoor and beach volleyball programs received national recognition for their work in the classroom this past year, as each team was honored as a 2024 AVCA Team Academic Award winner, as announced by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
The AVCA Team Academic Award, sponsored by INTENT, is an annual award that honors the nation’s top-performing collegiate and high school volleyball programs when it comes to academics. Programs honored by the AVCA include NCAA Division I, Division II, Division II, NAIA and TYC women’s indoor volleyball, NCAA Division I men’s indoor volleyball, NCAA beach volleyball as well as boys and girls high school volleyball.
To earn the award, a program must maintain a year-long GPA of 3.3 or higher, a mark that both UTC programs were able to surpass for 2023-24 as Chattanooga indoor volleyball posted a 3.570 while beach volleyball finished with a 3.531.
For indoor volleyball, this now marks the 13th consecutive year that the Mocs have met the 3.3 minimum team GPA requirement set by the AVCA.
Director of Volleyball and head coach Julie Torbett Thomas has also led the indoor program to back-to-back AVCA Team Academic Award seasons, doing so in each of her first two years at the helm of Chattanooga volleyball.
Indoor volleyball wrapped up its 2023-24 year with a total of 12 student-athletes being named to the SoCon Honor Roll, five of which earned SoCon Commissioner’s Medals as well. An additional nine student-athletes were also recognized on UTC’s AD Honor Roll and Dean’s List, with four players being named to the CSC All-District Team.
Chattanooga beach volleyball has been an AVCA Team Academic Award winner in five straight seasons dating back to the team’s inception in 2019-20. Under head coach Darin Van Horn, the Sandy Mocs have failed to log a year-long GPA lower than 3.488 in the team’s brief history.
The 2024 season for UTC beach volleyball saw the Mocs set a program record with 13 student-athletes earning a place on the AD Honor Roll, while tying program records for student-athletes on the Dean’s List (11) as well as student-athletes with 4.0 GPAs (5). Additionally, a total of four beach volleyball student-athletes received CSC Academic All-District honors, marking the first players in program history to ever do so.