Volleyball Receives National Academic Award

St. Louis, Mo. – Even as the 2006 UMSL volleyball season gets ready for the start of the new year, the 2005 Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team received an award from last season. The UMSL volleyball team received the Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award for last season, which is presented annually by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. UMSL was one of just 31 NCAA Division II schools across the country to receive this award and was one of just three schools in the Great Lakes Valley Conference to earn this honor.

The AVCA started this award in the 1992-93 academic year and presents it to teams that display excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average. The award is given to schools across all levels of college, Division I, II and III, as well as NAIA and junior colleges, and is also given to high school teams across the country.

UMSL was one of six colleges across all divisions from the state of Missouri to earn the award. There were four high schools in Missouri who earned the award, one is Pattonville High School, the alma mater of UMSL outside hitter Shamika Williams, and another was Helias High School, the alma mater of UMSL outside hitter Maribeth Oldelehr. In addition to this national team award, the UMSL volleyball team had five student-athletes earn GLVC Academic All-Conference honors which were awarded back in May.