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Two NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball teams received a team national academic honor.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association announced Thursday that Rutgers-Newark and Stanford earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2010-11 season.
To be eligible for this award a college or high school volleyball team must have at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade point average on a 4.0 scale or have a 4.10 GPA on a 5.0 scale.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Stanford has been recognized with the Team Academic Award. The Cardinal was also one of eight men’s volleyball teams in May to score at least a 990 out of 1,000 on the NCAA Academic Progress Rate, which measures academic scholastic performance of scholarship athletes during a four-year period.
Rutgers-Newark earned the program’s first Team Academic Award in the 11-year history of the academic honor. The award comes less than three months after the NCAA penalized the Scarlet Raiders with a 0.43 scholarship reduction because of its low APR score.
Rutgers-Newark ended last season in fourth place in the EIVA and lost to Penn State in the EIVA Tournament semifinals, while Stanford finished in third place in the MPSF and was ranked in the top 10 of the final coaches poll.
Along with Stanford and Rutgers-Newark, three Division III men’s volleyball programs — the College of Mount St. Vincent, Elmira College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — received the award. Cardinal Stritch University was the lone NAIA men’s volleyball team earn the Team Academic Award.
The five NCAA teams marks the most NCAA men’s volleyball teams to receive the Team Academic Award in a single year.
A record 481 teams received the AVCA academic honor this year, including 92 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball teams. In addition, 178 high school girl’s volleyball teams and 16 high school boy’s volleyball teams were recognized with the Team Academic Award.
For the complete list of schools winning the 2010-11 AVCA Team Academic Award, click here to the view the AVCA website.