For the 13th time in program history, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2017-18 academic year. 

This is the eighth time in the last nine years that Little Rock has earned the AVCA Team Academic Award. The Trojans first earned the award for the 1997-98 academic year.

The Trojans were one of 164 Division I teams to earn the honor as they posted a cumulative grade-point average of 3.35 through the 2018 spring semester.

In the Sun Belt Conference, Little Rock was one of five teams to earn the award, including Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, and ULM.

The Trojans were also one of 19 Division I teams that met their Dig Pink fundraising goal while earning the Team Academic Award. Funds raised benefited the Side-Out Foundation which sponsors the development of treatments and clinical trials for individuals with stage IV breast cancer.

Across all levels and divisions, 973 teams earned the AVCA Team Academic Award — a number that broke last year’s record of 835.

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 3.3 cumulative team GPA on a 4.0 scale or a 4.1 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by the number of schools, players, and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while amassing a 619-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 973.

Little Rock will begin the 2018 season against Division I newcomer North Alabama at the Jacksonville State Invitational on Aug. 24 in Jacksonville, Alabama.