Volleyball Earns Fourth Straight AVCA Team Academic Award
7/27/2016 4:56:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Kent State volleyball team has been recognized for its excellence in the classroom with the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2015-16 academic year. The Golden Flashes have received the honor each of the past four years and eight times since the award originated following the 1992-93 academic year.
The Team Academic Award honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school 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.
"We are extremely impressed with the results our student-athletes have earned in the classroom," said head coach Don Gromala. "They have helped create a culture that truly embodies how hard work and preparation on and off court leads to success."
The Golden Flashes achieved better than a 3.4 team GPA in both terms of this past academic year and carry a 3.47 cumulative GPA. Individually, Kelsey Bittinger was one of only seven Division I sophomores to be named Academic All-District First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Bittinger, Challen Geraghty, Kelly Hutchison and Bridget Wilhelm were voted as Mid-American Conference Distinguished Scholar-Athletes, while Brittney Jakscht, Sarah Mills and Drew Norberg joined them on the Academic All-MAC Team.
This past spring, the volleyball program earned a NCAA Public Recognition Award for posting a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR), an annual scorecard of academic achievement calculated for all Division I sports teams nationally, score in the top 10 percent of their sport.
The Golden Flashes also received the Kennedy Award at the 33rd annual Judith K. Devine Athletic Academic Honors Banquet.
Kent State's 16 student-athletes will report to campus on August 8 to begin practice for the 2016 season, which kicks off on August 26 at the Holiday Inn Orlando East/UCF Invitational in Orlando, Florida.
