RIT and St. John Fisher Volleyball Teams Earns AVCA Team Academic Award
July 24, 2007
From RIT and St. John Fisher Sports Information Releases
ROCHESTER, NY --The Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher volleyball teams earned the Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award based on academic excellence in 2006-07.
The RIT team achieved a 3.40 grade-point average, earning them the Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award for the fifth straight season.
The St. John Fisher team composed an impressive 3.46 grade point average in the spring semester after recording a 3.26 in the fall semester to earn the award for the second time in the last four years.
“Juggling academics and athletics can be a challenging task, but our volleyball players, as well as almost all our student-athletes have learned how to excel in both areas,” says athletic director Bob Ward, who will begin his 21st year at the College in the fall. “We’re extremely proud of our volleyball team for their commitment to academic excellence.”
The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale and a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale during the school year. Nominating head coaches must be AVCA members. Each school will receive a plaque, and each player a certificate commemorating the designation.
Recipients of the award range from NCAA Division I institutions to high school girls' and boys' teams. The college ranks produced 163 programs that met the requirements for the award in 2006-07. In addition to the record number of NCAA Division I recipients, NCAA Division III (53) exceeded its previous high mark of 48, set in 2003-04. There were 30 NCAA Division II schools honored, the third highest total for that division.