LEXINGTON, Ky. —  The Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2018-19 season.This is the ninth consecutive year that the Regals have been named to the list.

"I could not be more proud of the effort, dedication and perseverance of this group," said women's volleyball head coach Kellee Roesel. "They epitomize the term, student-athlete."

The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, 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 (GPA) on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. 

Cal Lutheran is one of three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) programs to earn the award. The Regals are joined by Chapman and Pomona-Pitzer. 

The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while amassing a 619-team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 1,126.

This number breaks the previous year's total of 977 to set an all-time high. Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 25-year history, with exactly 9,586 awards been given out in total.

AVCA Release: Team Academic Award
CLU Instagram: CLUSports
Sport IG: regals_volleyball
CLU Twitter: CLUSports
Sport Twitter: CLUwVolleyball
CLU Facebook: CLUSports
Hashtags: #clusports #ownthethrone #goregals #gokingsmen #theSCIAC #ncaad3

Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director