Spartan Volleyball Garners AVCA Team Academic Award

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) has announced that the USC Upstate volleyball team was one of a record 450 teams that earned the AVCA Team Academic award during the 2009-10 season. The Spartans are one of 94 NCAA Division I squads to earn the award and joined four other Atlantic Sun Conference members, Belmont, ETSU, Jacksonville and Lipscomb, to be honored.

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.

"There is no better way to gauge the success of a sport than to track the accomplishments of the people who participate," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "Each of these 450 teams represents 12-15 really smart kids. What a great day for the sport of volleyball!" 

This year marks the second time the Spartan's have won the award. During the 2007-08 academic year Upstate volleyball posted a 3.46 GPA to earn their first AVCA Team Academic Award, thanks to a fall semester in which the team set an athletic department record by posting a 3.624 GPA and 11 of the 13 Spartans posted a 3.0 GPA or better during the school year.

The 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. The program has increased by over 300% in the last 10 years and by 79% in the past three years alone. Both NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II recorded their highest-ever total numbers of recipients, with the former honoring 94 programs and the latter honoring 55 programs. The high school division also set a new bar with its 179 honorees.

The AVCA, with its headquarters in Lexington, Ky., is managed by IMG Associations, a division of IMG, the world's premier and most diversified sports, entertainment and media company.  The mission of the AVCA is to develop and grow the sport of volleyball; with a membership of over 5,000 and counting, the AVCA provides a professional network for those individuals and companies dedicated to enhancing and developing the sport. Members are comprised of national and international coaches, collegiate, high school, club, youth and Olympic coaches, as well as club directors. Other members include former players, officials, media members and other friends of volleyball. As a group, the AVCA is committed to the development, growth, advancement and publicity of volleyball throughout the world.  Further information is available at www.avca.org.

The 2010 Upstate volleyball season is set to begin on August 27 as the Spartans travel to Peoria, Ill. to compete at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational on the campus of Bradley University.