Indiana State has longest active Division I streak at 11 straight years
LEXINGTON, KY. – The Indiana State University volleyball program extended the longest active streak in NCAA Division I Tuesday with the announcement that the Sycamores have earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2008-2009 season.
“This is a tremendous honor for our team,” Traci Dahl, Indiana State volleyball coach, said. “To receive the Team Academic Award is an accomplishment in itself but to earn the award for 11 straight years speaks to the quality of the student-athletes that are or have been a part of Sycamore volleyball and their dedication to succeeding both in the classroom and on the volleyball court.”
The award was initiated in the 1992-1993 academic year to honor collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the academic 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.
A record number of 409 teams received the Team Academic Award. NCAA Division I once again had 71 schools receiving the award for academic achievements. NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III surpassed their marks from last year with 46 and 77 schools, respectively.
The NAIA had 35 of its member schools achieve the honor this year, which is 21 percent of its total membership for 2008-2009. Nine schools in the two-year college category attained the mark while the NCCAA produced two recipients.
The NCAA men’s programs produced multiple recipients of the award this year, with two Division I schools and another two Division III schools earning the award. A total of 165 high school boys’ and girls’ programs – 17 boys’ teams and 148 girls’ teams – earned the award in 2008-2009.
“Each year I’m impressed all over again by the academic prowess of volleyball players,” Kathy DeBoer, AVCA Executive Director, said. “Total AVCA Team Academic Award winners increased this year by another 55 schools (15 percent) over last year’s record, and, even more impressive, 22 percent of our four-year college teams had grade point averages of 3.2 or better.”
Over 900 different schools have earned the award in the program’s 17-year history, and over 2,800 awards have been given out. Only two institutions, both high schools, have earned the distinction all 17 years: Jonesboro High School (Jonesboro, Ark.) and Ross S. Sterling High School (Baytown, Tex.).
Drury University has the longest streak in NCAA Division II with 13 straight while the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has the longest in NCAA Division III with eight. The College of St. Mary (Neb.) has the longest NAIA streak at 15, which is also the longest overall in the nation.
