NU Eagles Earn AVCA Team Academic Honors 7/29/2016 10:53:33 AM LEXINGTON, Ky. - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced Monday that 764 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2015-2016 season. Northwest University's team was named an award winner. Of the 764 teams, only 54 teams in the NAIA earned academic team honors, three from the Cascade Conference: Northwest U, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon. CCC associate members Carroll College, and Rocky Mountain College also earned recognition. 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 on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. "Congratulations to the coaches and institutions that won the 2016 AVCA Team Academic Award," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "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." Girls high school led the way with the number of recipients of 260, an increase of 22 over last year. NCAA Division I honored 132 programs, while NCAA Division II reached a new record with a total of 119 honorees. NCAA Division III had the second-most honorees this year with a total of 140 schools, matching last year's record number. Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 24-year history, with exactly 7,642 awards been given out in total.