AVCA Release

The University of Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team was one of 131 Division I institutions to be named a recipient of the 2015-16 AVCA Team Academic Award by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. It’s now the eighth-consecutive season that UW has received the honor.

The Cowgirls had an overall grade-point average of 3.46 for the 2015-16 academic year. Wyoming had nine members on this year’s Mountain West All-Academic Team and six MW Scholar-Athletes. UW finished the season with a 23-7 overall record and a 13-5 mark in conference play.

“Congratulations to the coaches and institutions that won the 2016 AVCA Team Academic Award,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. “It is no accident that a volleyball coaches association recognizes academic excellence as a team, rather than an individual, achievement. Players influence each other, both in execution on the court and discipline in the classroom.”

According to the AVCA, 762 teams earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2015-2016 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 757 to set an all-time high.

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.

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 amassing a 475 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 762.