Volleyball honored for academic excellence

Beaver Falls, PA – The Geneva College volleyball team is only a week away from opening camp for the 2009 season. After experiencing an exciting season that included a 22-11 overall record, the Golden Tornadoes were also recently honored with an even more impressive achievement by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).

Geneva’s volleyball team was one of 409 schools in all divisions of the NCAA to be honored for academic excellence with the AVCA Team Academic Award. Teams must maintain a 3.3 overall GPA to be considered for the award. It was the fourth consecutive year that the total number of schools being recognized has increased and the total of 409 schools set a new record for academic excellence across the country.

“Each year I'm impressed all over again by the academic prowess of volleyball players,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. In the 17-year history of the award, over 900 different schools have earned the award.

“We are so honored to be associated with such a prestigious award,” said Geneva co-head coach Wendy Smith. “We take great pride in what our student-athletes do every day in the classroom and this award simply shows the tremendous results we had last year.”

A total of 77 Division III women’s programs were honored with the Team Academic Award, but only Thiel College joined the Golden Tornadoes from the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

Geneva’s volleyball team included 11 student-athletes last year with eight of those ladies receiving PAC scholar-athlete honors with at least a 3.6 GPA during the 2008 fall semester.

Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College’s philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).