Skyhawks recognized for averaging a 3.56 grade-point average in 2020-21
AVCA Announces 2020-21 USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award Recipients
EASTON, Mass. (July 20, 2021)– The United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) recently announced that 1,275 teams have earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2020-21 season including Stonehill College's women's volleyball team.
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.
The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players, and coaches honored. Girls high school again had the most winners by category, with 413 teams receiving honors, while 637 women's teams among all three divisions were recognized with 161 being Division II institutions. Over 2,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 29-year history, with 13,153 awards given out total.
The Skyhawks join Adelphi University, Assumption University, Bentley University, Franklin Pierce University, the College of Saint Rose, Southern Connecticut State University, and Southern New Hampshire University as the Northeast-10 Conference teams to make the list. Adelphi leads the teams with 13 honors, while Stonehill has collected six awards. Among the 161 NCAA Division II institutions that sponsor women's volleyball, 33 programs were honored for academic excellence across the country for the 2020-21 academic calendar.
Of the Purple & White, 15 players boasted a GPA between 3.00-4.00 in the latest NE10 Academic Honor Roll. Stonehill, under the direction of third-year head coach Craig Martin, garnered a 3.56 cumulative GPA over the two semesters. Recent graduate Sophia Poveda and junior Lauren Wilke received the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District® I first team award in June, as Poveda was also selected for her third Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award. Recent graduate Diana Kolb and junior Abby Remick earned a perfect 4.0 GPA this past semester.
Stonehill wrapped up its 2019 season with a 17-10 overall mark and a 9-4 NE10 record, as they made their second appearance in the NE10 Tournament semifinal round in three years, following a third-place regular season finish. These records were the best for the Skyhawks since 2014 and they finished eighth in the NCAA East Region. The 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Skyhawks played three matches for a 2-1 record.
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