Tech volleyball earns Team Academic Award for eighth straight year

Tech volleyball earns Team Academic Award for eighth straight year

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team received the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) for 2019-20, earning the honor for the eighth straight season. The Huskies had a 3.4 team grade-point average and were one of nine GLIAC and one of 171 teams in NCAA Division II to receive the honor.

"To excel as a student-athlete at Michigan Tech requires an incredible amount of discipline and dedication," coach Matt Jennings said. "Our players are driven students who are committed to their studies, their team, and their athletic careers. I have so much respect for what they do daily and consider myself incredibly fortunate to be the coach of such a smart, committed, and talented group. I admire the positive energy and attitude of this team and am so happy for them to be recognized for their academic achievement."

Seven Huskies were named to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team while two others were on the GLIAC All-Academic Team. Megan Utlak received the team's academic award for her 4.0 in finance. Morgan Radtke also holds a 4.0 GPA in biological sciences. Laura De Marchi was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team with her 3.83 GPA in biomedical engineering.

Along with their success in the classroom, the Huskies found success on the court, finishing with a 24-8 record while going to the GLIAC championship match and earning a birth into the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. Tech won its most matches since 1996, ranked as high as No. 20 in the nation on November 5, and won its first NCAA match since 1995.

The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale or 4.10 on a 5.0 scale.

The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while more than doubling the total over the last eight academic years. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 1,125.