LEXINGTON, Ky. --- The American Volleyball Coaches Association released a record 822 college, including Moravian College, and high school volleyball teams that received the 2016-17 AVCA Team Academic Award.
The award, which began in 1992-93 and is celebrating its 25th anniversary, honors college and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average during the 2016-17 school year. The total number of schools honored passed last year's record mark of 764 schools honored in 2015-16. Nominating coaches must be AVCA members.
The AVCA 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. 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.
Girl's high school led the way with a record number of recipients with 277. NCAA Division I honored 145 programs while NCAA Division II tied a record with a total of 119 honorees. NCAA Division III set another record with 150 schools taking home the honor.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 25-year history, with exactly 8,461 awards been given out in total.
Moravian, under the direction of 25-year head coach Shelley Bauder, earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 11th time since the award was started and for the fourth consecutive year. The Greyhounds and fellow Landmark Conference schools Elizabethtown College, The University of Scranton and Susquehanna University received the honor.
"I'm so proud of our team for putting in the hard work and excelling in the classroom and earning this award," stated Bauder. "It's always our goal each year to earn this award and I'm thankful for my team's dedication both on the court and in the classroom."
Coach Bauder and the Greyhounds open their 2017 season on Friday, September 1 when the squad hosts Alvernia University and Baldwin-Wallace (Ohio) College in Johnston Hall as part of the 15th Annual Greyhound Premiere.
To view the entire 2016-17 AVCA Team Academic Award recipients, visit https://www.avca.org/awards/2016-2017-avca-team-academic-award-recipients.html.