@MizzouVB Earns AVCA Team Academic Award
7/24/2017 4:13:00 PM | Volleyball
Wayne Kreklow’s SEC Champion, Sweet 16 team had the highest team GPA of any program on Mizzou’s campus
COLUMBIA, Mo. – In addition to winning the SEC regular season championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, Mizzou Volleyball was also recognized for its tremendous work in the classroom, earning a spot on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Recipient List, announced Monday. The award, which is the fourth consecutive year that the program has earned the distinction, continues to uphold the reputation of high on-court success combined with academic excellence that has come to define Mizzou Volleyball under the leadership of Wayne and Susan Kreklow.
"We are very proud of our entire team," head coach Wayne Kreklow said. "We demand a lot of them over the course of a season and they delivered over the last year, both on the court and in the classroom. To win a conference championship and advance to the Sweet 16 takes so much dedication, but to do it while compiling the best grade point average of any team on campus says a lot about the kids that we have in our program. We believe in mentoring not only great athletes but mentoring great people and this award is obviously very indicative of what we are doing here at Mizzou."
Mizzou Volleyball maintained its reputation as a top-tier academic program with a cumulative 3.50 grade point average over the Spring 2017 semester. The total established itself as the highest team GPA among the 20 intercollegiate athletics programs on campus.
The Tigers have exceeded a 3.50 team GPA in three consecutive Spring semesters at the University of Missouri. Additionally, under the Kreklows, Mizzou has surpassed a 3.0 collective GPA in 13 of its past 14 Spring semesters.
Over the recent Spring 2017 semester, four Tigers recorded a perfect 4.0 GPA, four student-athletes posted a GPA between 3.50-3.99 and three individuals finished with a GPA between 3.00-3.49.
Mizzou Volleyball has regularly enjoyed high success rates in the classroom over the years. In early May, the Tigers were one of four Mizzou Athletics programs to achieve a perfect 1,000 NCAA Academic Progress Rating (APR) for the 2015-16 academic year. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of a respective program's academic performance.
In February, Mizzou Volleyball was represented by 11 student-athletes on the 2016 Fall Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll. The incredible showing was of no surprise, as the Tigers posted a cumulative 3.55 GPA during their Fall 2016 semester.
Historically, the Tigers have exceeded a 3.0 team GPA in 23 of their past 27 combined Fall and Spring semesters at the University of Missouri.
