Bulldogs earn AVCA Team Academic Award for 2014-15 success in classroom

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University volleyball team has been named among the 146 NCAA Division I women's teams to receive the 2014-15 AVCA Team Academic Award, as announced by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

The Bulldogs are one of five schools out of the Northeast Conference to receive the prestigious honor, joined by Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Brooklyn and Saint Francis (PA).

A total of 752 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2014-15 season, a number that breaks the previous year's total of 676 and sets a new all-time high for this award. 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.

The AVCA 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. Since the 2000-01 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but one, while amassing a 476 team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 752.

The Bulldogs open their 2015 season August 28-29, when they host the Hampton Inn-vitational at the Chace Athletic Center.