July 25, 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina volleyball team continued to collect off-the-court honors on Monday, as it earned The American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) Team Academic Award. It is the fifth-straight season earning this distinction for the program, which also won the athletic department’s community outreach award for volunteerism in the spring.

“We are very proud of our student-athletes for their consistently high-level efforts towards academics,” said head coach Scott Swanson. “This award has become a program expectation every year.”

The award honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that maintained at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average during the school year. This year, 762 men’s and women’s programs across the high school and college ranks were honored, a new record for the AVCA.

“Congratulations to the coaches and institutions that won the 2016 AVCA Team Academic Award,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer in the organization’s official release. “It is no accident that a volleyball coaches association recognizes academic excellence as a team, rather than an individual, achievement. Players influence each other, both in execution on the court and discipline in the classroom.”

The Gamecocks are coming off a 13-win season in 2015 and join together six newcomers with 12 letterwinners. The 2016 season begins Aug. 26 with a tournament at the College of Charleston, and the home opener will be Sept. 2 against Clemson.