AVCA RELEASE | MIAC RELEASE

MINNEAPOLIS -- For the fourth straight year and ninth time in the history of the honor, the Augsburg University volleyball team has earned the United States Marine Corps/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award, it was announced this week. In addition to the Team Academic Award, Augsburg earned the Team Academic Honor Roll award for the second straight year, for finishing among the top 20 percent of NCAA Division III programs in team grade-point average in the 2020-21 school year.

During the 2020-21 school year, Augsburg's volleyball team had a 3.70 team grade-point average, with each of the 13 players on the squad carrying a cumulative GPA of 3.10 or better. Ten Auggies had GPAs of better than 3.50, and seven had GPAs of better than 3.70. Six Auggies earned Academic All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors -- Izzy Barr (JR, River Falls, Wis./River Falls HS), Jade Boysen (SO, Rochester, Minn./Mayo HS), Jade Fullerton (SO, Arden Hills, Minn./Mounds View HS), Lexie Lang (SO, Rochester, Minn./Mayo HS), Maddie Nierengarten (JR, Foley, Minn./Princeton HS) and Katie O'Rourke (SO, Columbia Heights, Minn./Irondale HS).

Established in the 1992-93 academic year, the AVCA's Team Academic Award 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. A record 233 NCAA Division III women's volleyball programs earned the Team Academic Award. 

Augsburg was one of 47 Division III women's programs to earn the Team Academic Honor Roll award, finishing among the top 20 percent of team GPAs in the division. It's the second year in a row that Augsburg has earned Team Academic Honor Roll honors.

A total of 11 MIAC programs earned AVCA Team Academic Award honors this season, with five programs -- Augsburg, Bethel, Hamline, Macalester and St. Catherine -- also earning Team Academic Honor Roll honors.

Under 11th-year head coach Jane Becker, Augsburg finished 6-2 in the 2020-21 season, which was shortened and held in the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.