MINNEAPOLIS -- For the 11th time in the history of the honor, the Augsburg University volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award, and also earned the AVCA's Team Academic Award Honor Roll Award for exceptional academic success, it was announced this week.

During the 2025-26 school year, Augsburg's volleyball team had a 3.76 team grade-point average, with each of the 17 players on the squad carrying a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better. Thirteen Auggies had GPAs of better than 3.50, and three finished with perfect 4.00 GPAs.

Augsburg also earned the AVCA's Team Academic Award Honor Roll honor, reserved for teams in the top 20 percent of GPAs in their specific division. Just 46 NCAA Division III programs earned the Honor Roll honor.

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. More than 1,400 teams earned the honor in 2025-26. 

Ten Auggies earned Academic All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors in 2025-26 -- Ava Carlson (SO, Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet HS), Gwynn Gorter (SO, Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley HS), Taylor Hoehns (SR, Cedar Falls Iowa/Dike-New Hartford HS), Jovial King (JR, Caledonia, Minn./Caledonia HS), Maggie Lile (JR, Spring Grove, Minn./Spring Grove HS), Elizabeth Oster (JR, Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji HS), Lola Pilon (JR, Farmington, Minn./Mounds Park Academy HS), Carmen Shimek (SO, Ramsey, Minn./Anoka HS), Elise Uphoff (JR, Marshfield, Wis./Marshfield HS) and Teagan Walter (JR, Red Wing, Minn./Red Wing HS).

Under first-year head coach Jay Kam, Augsburg finished 11-19 overall and 5-6 in MIAC play in 2025.