St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Volleyball Earns AVCA Team Academic Award
8/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
QUEENS, N.Y. - For the ninth time in program history, the St. John's volleyball team has been honored with the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award.
A record 684 teams received the honor for the 2013-14 academic year, including seven from the BIG EAST Conference and a total of 134 NCAA Division I squads.
"This award is representative of the strong academic goals that the volleyball team set for the 2013-14 season and I look forward to continuing to work with them to achieve their academic goals and represent St. John's," said Assistant Director of Academic Support, Vicki Laemmel. "I'd also like to recognize two student-athletes, Hope Demel and Aleksandra Wachowicz, that earned perfect 4.0 academic year GPAs."
The Red Storm, which last received the honor following the 2010-11 season, finished the 2013-14 academic year with a 3.40 cumulative grade-point average (GPA), eclipsing the mandatory 3.30 mark that a squad must carry to be considered for the honor.
"I'm very proud of our team for garnering this prestigious AVCA Academic Award for the ninth time in school history," said head coach Joanne Persico. "I believe it shows the strong commitment we have here at St. John's among all our sports teams to make academics our top priority."
SJU was previously honored in 2010-11 (3.31 GPA), 2008-09 (3.30 GPA), 2006-07 (3.45 GPA), 2000-01 (3.30 GPA), 1999-00 (3.30 GPA), 1997-98 (3.44 GPA), 1996-97 (3.54 GPA) and 1995-96 (3.48 GPA). The 2013-14 season marked the 20th time in 20 seasons of the program's existence that the squad has earned a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
Persico and the Red Storm open the 2014 campaign on Friday, Aug. 29 at Bryant's Invitational in Smithfield, R.I. St. John's will play Army on Friday, before taking on UMass-Lowell and Bryant on Saturday, Aug. 30.
