KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

LEXINGTON, KY. ? The longest active streak in Division I continued this week with the announcement by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) that the 2009-2010 Indiana State volleyball team earned the AVCA Team Academic Award.

The Sycamores earned their 12th straight AVCA Team Academic Award which is the longest active streak among Division I schools and the second longest among all collegiate divisions.

The American Volleyball Coaches Association announced Tuesday that 450 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2009-2010 season.  This number once again smashes the previous years' total of 409 and sets a new all-time high for this award.

There were 94 NCAA Division I women's program's honored by AVCA led by Indiana State with their 12th straight award. Seven of the 10 members of the Missouri Valley Conference received the honor including Indiana State, Bradley, Creighton, Drake, Illinois State, Missouri State, and Southern Illinois.

The award was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year and 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.

"There is no better way to gauge the success of a sport than to track the accomplishments of the people who participate," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "Each of these 450 teams represents 12-15 really smart kids. What a great day for the sport of volleyball!"  

The Team Academic Award has become one of the AVCA's fastest growing awards programs, seeing an impressive surge in teams honored over the past several years. The program has increased by over 300% in the last 10 years and by 79% in the past three years alone. Both NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II recorded their highest-ever total numbers of recipients, with the former honoring 94 programs and the latter honoring 55 programs. The high school division also set a new bar with its 179 honorees.

Prior to 2009-10, only nine teams had attained the pinnacle of volleyball success in both earning the AVCA Team Academic Award and winning their respective collegiate national championship in the same academic year. This year, the AVCA is proud to recognize four programs -- Concordia University-St. Paul (NCAA Division II), Washington University in St. Louis (NCAA Division III), Clearwater Christian College (NCCAA Division II) and Stanford University (NCAA Division I-II men) - all of whom excelled both in the classroom and on the court. Concordia-St. Paul and Washington-St. Louis had both accomplished this feat once before, ironically both in the same academic year (2007-08).

There were 119 first-time recipients of the AVCA Team Academic Award in 2009-10. NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II each saw 15 new teams achieve the honor, while NCAA Division III welcomed 17 newcomers.  Thirteen NAIA teams, two NCCAA teams and two Two-Year Colleges garnered recognition for the first time, while 55 high school teams (51 girls' teams and four boys' teams) received their first AVCA Team Academic nod.

Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 18-year history, and over 2,900 awards have been given out in all. Only two institutions, both high schools, have earned the distinction all 18 years: Jonesboro High School (Jonesboro, Arkansas) and Ross S. Sterling High School (Baytown, Texas).

Drury University has the longest streak in NCAA Division II and the longest overall collegiate streak in the nation with 14 straight selections. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has the longest streak in NCAA Division III with nine straight selections.