Stonehill College Skyhawks

Skyhawks recognized for academic excellence 

EASTON, Mass. (August 15, 2011) – The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced last week that 481 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2010-2011 season including Stonehill College’s women’s volleyball team. This year’s AVCA number once again breaks the previous years' total of 450 and sets a new all-time high for this award.  

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 (GPA) on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. 

Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 19-year history, with 4,294 awards given out total. Only two institutions, both high schools, have earned the distinction all 19 years. 

The Skyhawks join Adelphi University, Franklin Pierce University and the College of St. Rose as the only Northeast-10 Conference teams to make the list. Among all 263 NCAA Division II institutions that sponsor women’s volleyball only 57 programs were honored for academic excellence across the country for the 2010-11 academic calendar. 

Stonehill’s women’s volleyball team had at least five players boast a GPA between 3.5-to-3.99 in the latest Northeast-10 Spring 2011 Commissioner’s Honor Roll including senior Andrea Wirth (Mesa, Ariz./St. Mary’s) who was named to the Northeast-10 All-Championship Team. 

The Skyhawks (16-13, 11-4 NE-10) posted their best regular-season conference record since 1996 this past fall prior to the NE-10’s expansion to 16 teams and also made the NE-10 semifinals for second-straight time in the past three seasons.