Rebel Volleyball Earns Gameplan/AVCA Team Academic Award

OXFORD, Miss. While the Ole Miss volleyball team made a record run to the NCAA Tournament last season, the volleyball court wasn’t the only place the squad was turning in maximum effort.

Ole Miss was one of 55 Division I schools to receive the Gameplan/AVCA Team Academic Award, the American Volleyball Coaches Association announced on Thursday. The award is given annually in recognition of teams who achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher for the academic year.

The Rebels were one of only two Southeastern Conference teams to win the award, joining the University of Florida in the distinction.

Ole Miss won the Gameplan/AVCA award for the first time this year. The program also claimed the Chancellor’s Cup in the fall of 2006 having for the highest GPA of any team on campus.

The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale and a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale during the school year. Nominating head coaches must be AVCA members.  Each school will receive a plaque, and each player a certificate commemorating the designation.

Recipients of the award range from NCAA Division I institutions to high school girls’ and boys’ teams. The college ranks produced 163 programs that met the requirements for the award in 2006-07.  In addition to the record number of NCAA Division I recipients, NCAA Division III (53) exceeded its previous high mark of 48, set in 2003-04.  There were 30 NCAA Division II schools honored, the third highest total for that division.

The Rebel volleyball team will open its season on August 24, when Ole Miss will host the fifth annual Magnolia Invitational. The Rebels will take on Missouri at 7 p.m. at the Gillom Sports Complex on campus.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

Related News

Related Videos