Kent State Claims Sixth Straight AVCA Team Academic Award
7/17/2018 3:55:00โฏPM | Women's Volleyball
LEXINGTON, Ky.โ The Kent State volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2017-18 academic year, the organization announced on Monday (July 16). The Golden Flashes have received the honor each of the past six years and 10 times overall.
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, 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.
The Golden Flashes finished the academic year with a 3.61 GPA as a team, boasting nine President's list honors for achieving a 4.0 term GPA. Six student-athletes recorded a GPA of 3.90 or higher for the entire academic year. Individually, Kelsey Bittinger was a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-Districtยฎ First Team selection and was voted as a Mid-American Conference Distinguished Scholar-Athlete. Challen Geraghty, Amber Gerdeman, Brittney Jakscht, Sam Jones, Lexi Mantas and Claire Tulisiak joined her on the Academic All-MAC Team.
Seventh-year head coach Don Gromala has emphasized the importance of academics with his student-athletes, and each of his Kent State teams has been recognized by the AVCA as a result. During Gromala's tenure, Kent State has received 38 Academic All-MAC, nine MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete and five MAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors.
In May, the volleyball program earned its third consecutive 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, scores in the top 10 percent of their sport. The Flashes have posted a perfect APR score in six straight years.
Kent State's 15 student-athletes will report to campus on August 6 to begin practice for the 2018 season. The Golden Flashes will host the annual Blue and Gold Scrimmage on Tuesday, August 14 at 7 p.m. inside the M.A.C. Center and then head to Findlay for an exhibition contest on Friday, August 17. The regular season kicks off at the North Texas Invitational in Denton, Texas (August 24-25).
