For the ninth consecutive season, the John Brown University volleyball team has been awarded the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2019-20 season, alongside two other Sooner Athletic Conference institutions and a record 66 NAIA programs.
The award is JBU's ninth consecutive collecting the Team Academic accolades, first in 2012, continuing the seventh-longest active streak in the NAIA. The Golden Eagles are one of three SAC teams to receive the award this season, joining Oklahoma City and Wayland Baptist (Texas). The volleyball squad finished the 2019-20 academic year boasting a 3.67 grade-point average, including seven NAIA Scholar-Athletes, which require a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average and the student-athlete having finished at least 48 credit hours.
The Golden Eagles finished with the second-highest team GPA among all SAC volleyball squads. Southwestern Christian (Okla.) took the top spot with a 3.71 grade-point average.
"In a year that our student-athletes had to deal with an unplanned and significant disruption to their academic endeavors, to finish with result we did -- I could not be more proud of our perseverance and performance," head coach Ken Carver said.
"Our team takes great pride, year in and out, in furthering the academic legacy of our program at the university, conference and national levels. The student-athletes' embracing of the daily commitment to our core team value of passionately pursuing excellence in all things has allowed them to achieve this prestigious honor, once again. A well-deserved recognition for such a great group of young women."
The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. To qualify for the award, teams must maintain at least a year-long GPA of 3.30.