STANFORD, Calif. – All three of Stanford's volleyball programs were recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association today as recipients of the AVCA Team Academic Award, the only NCAA program to earn the award across the three division I sports.
The 2016 Stanford women's volleyball team, which defeated Texas to win its seventh national championship in December, has been a model program of scholar-athleticism. Over the past six seasons, 35 Cardinal have earned Pac-12 all-academic recognition, including five in 2016 – Inky Ajanaku, Kelsey Humphreys, Merete Lutz, Ivana Vanjak and Halland McKenna.
Stanford is one of three Division I programs in the history of the AVCA team award to win both the AVCA Team Academic Award and national championship in the same academic year. The Cardinal became the first program to accomplish that feat following the 2001 season. Stanford was joined by Oregon State as the only two Pac-12 programs to receive the award for 2016-17.
The Cardinal men's program was one of 19 schools to earn the AVCA award for the 2017 season, joined by Hawaii as the only MPSF schools to be recognized. Kevin Rakestraw, Gabriel Vega, Clay Jones and Jordan Ewert each earned MPSF all-academic honors following the 2017 season.
Stanford's beach program was one of 19 programs to earn AVCA team recognition, joined by the University of Arizona as the only two Pac-12 schools to receive the award. This is the third consecutive season the Cardinal has earned the recognition. In May, Courtney Bowen and Jennifer DiSanto earned second-team all-academic honors from the Pac-12, while Payton Chang, Catherine Raquel and Vanjak all earned honorable mentions.
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 or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.
The AVCA Team Academic Award, celebrating its 25th year, is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients have increased every single year but two, while amassing a 532 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 822.
