Akron Volleyball Earns AVCA Honor Roll and Team Academic Awards

Akron Volleyball Earns AVCA Honor Roll and Team Academic Awards

July 21 | Women's Volleyball

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Full AVCA Team Academic Award Release

LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the fifth consecutive year and 14th time overall, The University of Akron women's volleyball team was recognized for its academic success by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA), earning Academic Top 46 Team Honor Roll and Team Academic Award accolades, while reaching their Dig Pink fundraising goal.

As a team, the Zips achieved a 3.651 team GPA during the 2019-20 academic year, including a 3.539 GPA in the fall followed by a 3.834 GPA in the spring.

"As always, our team continues to produce at a high level in the classroom," head coach Tom Hanna said. "I'm proud of how they handle their academics every semester and, with all of the changes that occurred during the spring semester, this honor means a little bit more this year."

The accolades mark the 15th year in a row that Hanna's teams (Akron and Marist) have been honored for academic success by the AVCA. Further evidence of his squad's academic distinction is the fact that every year he has been a head coach his teams have earned AVCA academic recognition.

A conference-best nine Zips earned Mid-American Conference All-Academic laurels this past season with seniors Ashley Richardson (Doylestown, Ohio), Elya Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.), along with juniors Shelby Fulmer (Perrysburg, Ohio), Alexis Adleta (West Chester, Ohio), Taylor Sharrits (Concord, Ohio), Emily Weigand (Burton, Ohio), Taylor Kuruzovich (Port Matilda, Pa.), and sophomores Teagan Ochaya (Mentor, Ohio) and Jen Durra (Painesville, Ohio) garnering academic all-league honors.

Since the 2015 campaign, Hanna's first leading the Zips, 21 Akron student-athletes (Madi Baer (3), Kayla Gwozdz (3), Karsner (3), Abbey Pawlak (3), Richardson (3), Adleta (2), Amanda Bedell (2), Fulmer (2), Jessie Kloehn (2), Aubrey Kozer (2), Kuruzovich (2), Brenna Mack (2), Callie Mack (2), Sharrits (2), Weigand (2), Ashley Holder, Karley Kusan, Julie Shallman, Julia Smagacz, Anna Wenger and Kelsey Wilson) have earned 43 overall Academic All-MAC awards.

The Zips' 43 Academic All-MAC citations over that span are a league-high total. Akron is tied with Toledo (43) and are followed by Bowling Green (38), Miami (38), Ball State (34), Kent State (33), Northern Illinois (33), Central Michigan (28), Ohio (28), Eastern Michigan (28), Western Michigan (21) and Buffalo (18).

Additionally, Adleta and Weigand headlined a conference-best two Zips collecting MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete accolades this past season.

Since the award's inception for the 2014-15 academic campaign, 10 Akron student-athletes (Kozer (2), B. Mack (2), C. Mack (2), Smagacz (2), Adleta, Gwozdz, Richardson, Sharrits, Weigand and Wilson) have been recognized as the best of the best among MAC volleyball student-athletes.

In Hanna's first four campaigns (2015-present) as head coach, the Zips own a conference-best 14 MAC Distinguished-Scholar awards followed by Ball State (12), Miami (12), Northern Illinois (11), Ohio (10), Kent State (10), Bowling Green (9), Toledo (6), Western Michigan (7), Eastern Michigan (5), Buffalo (4) and Central Michigan (4).

The AVCA honored a record 1,313 teams, including 11 from the MAC (Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami, Northern Illinois, Ohio, and Toledo), with the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2019-20 season. In addition, Akron and Bowling Green were the only two MAC schools to reach Top 46 Team Honor Roll distinction. This number broke the previous year's total of 1,130 and sets a new all-time high for the award, including an all-time high 227 programs from NCAA Division I alone.

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 is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while more than doubling the total over the last eight academic years. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 1,313.

Academic honors are nothing new to the volleyball program as this is the 14th time Akron has received the award since the AVCA began recognizing programs. The Zips were previously awarded the AVCA Team Academic Award for their efforts during the 1992-93, 2000-01, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years.