For the 13th consecutive season, Western Kentucky’s volleyball team has been recognized as a recipient of the AVCA Team Academic Award for its work in the classroom throughout the 2018-19 school year, the association announced Monday. With a cumulative GPA of 3.46, the Lady Toppers have earned the Team Academic Award for the 17th time since 1999. 

The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that display 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.

Since the 2000-01 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 1,125.

In total, 189 Division I women’s teams were honored with WKU representing one of eight Conference USA programs on the list including: Charlotte, FIU, Middle Tennessee, Rice, Southern Miss, UTEP and UTSA in addition to the Lady Toppers.