Athletics News

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Swarthmore volleyball team was one of 287 schools to earn the Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2005-2006 season, given by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). 

The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors college 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.

Swarthmore is one of 44 Division III women's programs to earn this honor; the second time in head coach Harleigh Leach's tenure that the team has earned this distinction (the first coming in 2003-2004).  Swarthmore joined Bryn Mawr as the two schools representing the Centennial Conference on the list.

The 287 schools receiving the honor eclipses last season's mark of 276 for the second most in the 14-year history of the program; the 2003-04 season produced the record when 305 schools achieved the award. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I set a single-season record for number of collegiate schools at any division receiving the award with 54 in 05-06.

Recipients of the award range from NCAA Division I institutions to high school girls' and boys' teams. The college ranks produced 155 programs that met the requirements for the award in 2005-2006. To go along with the record number of NCAA Division I recipients, NCAA Division II (31) tied its highest division mark set in 2003-2004 and NCAA Division III (44) set its second highest division total (48 in 2003-2004).

"The Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award is what being a student-athlete is all about. The AVCA is privileged to once again be able to award these schools for their excellence in the classroom," AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer said. "We congratulate the student-athletes, coaches and school personnel for achieving this honor and upholding the delicate balance between academics and athletics."

The Garnet finished 2005-06 with an overall record of 13-15 (6-4 in the Centennial), earning the first CC playoff berth in the school's history.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Volleyball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.