TTU Sports Information / AVCA
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tennessee Tech volleyball was one of 1,125 programs across the country that helped epitomize the definition of the term "student-athlete" over the course of the 2018-19 season, and was so recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association as a recipient of its Team Academic Award. The total of 1,125 breaks the AVCA's previous year's total of 977 to set an all-time high.
"Our players have been very focused on making positive strides on and off of the court," said Tech head coach Jeannette Waldo, who will enter her second season this fall. "We are constantly stressing that we need to be student-athletes, in that order; students first, then successful athletes. Our staff is very proud of how our team has taken control of their academic journeys and we are looking forward to that mindset relating back onto the court."
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.
Of the 1,125 honorees, Tech was one of 505 from the NCAA women's category, and one of 189 from NCAA Division I.
Waldo's club scored a 3.47 cumulative GPA for the spring semester, which was the second-highest among the 14 sport programs at TTU, and prolonged the team's incredible streak of uninterrupted semesters exceeding a 3.0 to 38 consecutive – a run that dates back to the fall of 2000.
Tech was one of seven programs from the Ohio Valley Conference that earned the award, joining Belmont, Jacksonville State, Morehead State, Murray State, Southeast Missouri, and SIUE.
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 has increased every single year but two, while more than doubling the total over the last eight academic years. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 1,125.
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award over the organization's 25-year history, with exactly 9,586 awards given out in total.
