Aug. 2, 2010
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By Sarah Tarasewicz
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF volleyball team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the first time in program history after posting a 3.384 team GPA during the 2009-10 school year.
The Knights were one of 94 NCAA Division I women's volleyball teams to be honored by the AVCA for excellence in the classroom, and were also one of only seven Conference USA squads to earn the accolade.
Initiated during the 1992-93 academic year, the award honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that maintain at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale during the academic year.
The volleyball team recorded a 3.51 grade point average for the spring semester, leading all UCF teams, while also posting a 3.29 GPA in the fall in order to qualify for the annual national academic award.
"We could not be more proud of our student-athletes and their accomplishments in the classroom," head coach Todd Dagenais said. "We met as a team back in January and knew that the best chance to have success on the court was to exhibit the same type of disciple in the classroom."
Sara Rex, Dani Harrison and Meredith Murphy all recorded perfect 4.0 GPAs during the spring semester, while Brittany Wallace, Tory McCutcheon and Evija Vilde all posted 3.9 or better GPAs during the same semester.
Most impressively, the Knights' returning student-athletes posted a 3.667 combined GPA for the semester.
"The players on this team have established an academic culture of excellence that will be followed by every student-athlete that commits to play for our program," Dagenais said.
The Knights had a program-record 10 student-athletes garner spots on the C-USA Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll last season, while four members of the squad were recipients of the C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal.