Volleyball Collects 14th Straight AVCA Team Academic Award

Courtesy: Northern Michigan Wildcats

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Northern Michigan University Volleyball team earned an impressive 14th straight American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award, the association announced Monday.

The award, which began in the 1992-93 academic year, honors men’s and women’s collegiate and high school volleyball teams that maintained 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.

NMU volleyball racked up more academic honors earlier this summer as the team had nine student-athletes make the 2020-21 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) All-Academic Excellence team. Members of the All-Academic Excellence team had to achieve a GPA in the range of 3.50-4.0 and not be classified as a freshman or first-year transfer students.

On the court, Wildcats finished the season 15-2, including winning the GLIAC regular-season and tournament titles. The team was ranked No. 18 in the final AVCA Division II Coaches Top 25 Women’s Poll of the season. Head coach Mike Lozier won GLIAC Coach of the Year and freshman Jacqueline Smith won the conference’s Freshman of the Year honors.

Northern Michigan joined 1,275 teams across the country, 161 in NCAA Division II, who also earned the AVCA award. The Wildcats’ streak of 14 years is tied for the fifth-longest in all of Division II.