UTEP Volleyball named recipient of the AVCA Team Academic Award

El Paso, TX- The UTEP Volleyball team was announced recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2017-2018 season. This marks the second year in a row the Miners have earned this coveted award.

The AVCA Team Academic Award, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that display excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

Since it’s inception during the 1992-93 academic year, the amount of award recipients has grown exponentially.

Over the past decade, there has been a 622-team increase to it’s current total of 976 award winners. This number breaks the previous year’s total of 835 to set an all-time high.

The team grade point average this past season was an incredible 3.52 making UTEP Volleyball one of 164 Division I award recipients.

“I couldn’t be prouder of their classroom success,” UTEP head coach Holly Watts said. “We have an incredible group of young ladies, both on and off the court. This group is establishing a new set of standards.”

Twelve Miners were named to the Conference USA Academic Honor Roll for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.

Leading the way were second-team All C-USA outside hitter Macey Austin and junior Briana Arellano, who were awarded the Conference USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal for earning a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or better.