LEXINGTON, Ky. - By posting a cumulative grade point average of 3.40 at the conclusion of the 2006-07 academic year, the Seattle University volleyball team has earned the GamePlan/AVCA Team Academic Award, announced Thursday by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).
The award honors collegiate and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade point average on a 4.0 scale and a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale during the school year. Each school will receive a plaque, and each player a certificate commemorating the designation.
Seattle University was one of 30 Division II schools honored, the third-highest total for the division in the 15-year history of the program. Seattle University and fellow GNAC member Seattle Pacific were the only two four-year colleges in the state of Washington at any level to receive the award.
"The AVCA is again privileged to present the GamePlan/AVCA Team Academic Award to these outstanding institutions," said Kathy DeBoer, AVCA Executive Director. "We congratulate the student-athletes for their hard work in the classroom and thank our coaches for instilling this dedication in the young women and men of our sport."
The volleyball team is the fifth Seattle University athletic squad to be honored for academics by its sport's coaches association. In February, the SU men's and women's cross country teams received All-Academic Team recognition from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), while the Redhawk men's and women's swim teams received the Academic All-American Swim Team award from the College Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) in March.
Earlier this week, the Seattle University athletic department received the GNAC Academic All-Sports title for 2006-07, with the men's cross country, men's soccer, and women's softball teams posting the best cumulative GPA in their respective conference sports. The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) have also honored Seattle University student-athletes with five ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honorees and 13 Academic All-District recipients in 2006-07.
The mission of the Seattle University athletics department is to champion the holistic development of student-athletes inspiring a vital and engaged campus community through the development and maintenance of a premier, nationally prominent NCAA Division II athletics program, in the spirit of the Jesuit tradition. The university has begun the process of reclassifying to become a Division I member of the NCAA.