WKU Volleyball earns USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for 15th consecutive year

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Credit: WKU Athletics

The WKU volleyball team after arriving back on campus on April 4, 2021 from the C-USA Championship match against Rice.

Jake Moore, Sports Editor

WKU Volleyball was named as a recipient of the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the program’s academic success over the course of the 2020-21 academic year, the association announced on Monday. It marks the 15th year in a row the Hilltoppers have earned the award and 19th time in total since 1999. The program’s 15-year win streak is currently tied for sixth longest out of all NCAA Division I schools.

“I’m not sure more could get thrown at a student-athlete than what our kids faced this spring,” WKU head coach Travis Hudson said in a press release. “To deal with all the COVID issues, playing a season during the spring, and being away from campus in the NCAA Tournament bubble for an extended period of time right before finals, our players were faced with many challenges to their academic endeavors. To emerge from all that and earn the Team Academic Award for the 15th year in a row is a tremendous accomplishment. I am very proud!”

The award was first distributed after the 1992-93 academic year and serves to honor both collegiate and high school volleyball teams that display excellence in the classroom by keeping a 3.30 cumulative team GPA on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. WKU finished the 2020-21 academic year with a team GPA of 3.619. 1,275 programs received the award this year.

Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, Southern Miss, UAB and UTSA join Western Kentucky as C-USA recipients of the honor. The full list of recipients can be found here.

Sports Editor Jake Moore can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Charles_JMoore.