JBU volleyball earns AVCA award

For the 10th consecutive season, the John Brown University volleyball team has been awarded the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award, this time for the 2020-21 season, the AVCA national office recently announced.

JBU's accolade streak now reaches a decade, first coming in 2011-12, 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 2020-21 academic year boasting a 3.52 grade-point average, including eight NAIA Scholar-Athletes, which requires a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average and the student-athlete having finished at least 48 credit hours.

"I'm proud of our student-athletes' continued and sustained level of excellence in the classroom that has allowed us to earn another AVCA Team Academic Award," said head coach Ken Carver.

"Our current 10-year streak illustrates the sustained commitment and focus to pursuing academic excellence by all of our volleyball student-athletes. I'm proud of them for their mutual encouragement and accountability in spurring each other on to do well in the classroom. I'm thankful for all of the faculty and academic support staff who are equally involved in the success of our student-athletes. Each year this is one of our team's highest academic goals and to have our student-athletes earn it yet again and be one of only three SAC programs to earn this prestigious honor this year in light of all the challenges that covid presented to our learning environment, is the equivalent to earning an academic championship. A well-deserved congratulations is in order to all of our student-athletes."

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.