LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the seventh straight year, the Plymouth State University women's volleyball team has been awarded with the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award.
 
To be eligible, collegiate and high school volleyball teams must maintain a year-long grade point average of at least 3.30 on a 4.00 scale.
 
Plymouth State has won the award in ten of the last 11 years, including each of the last seven. A total of 1,450 men's and women's teams across all three NCAA divisions, NAIA, NCCAA, and two-year colleges, including both indoor and beach, were rewarded for their work in the classroom.
 
"It is very exciting to see that the record-setting, on-court successes during the 2024-25 season have extended to the classroom," says AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon. "The fact that more programs earned the Team Academic Award than ever before is evidence of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their goals as both students and athletes."
 
PSU was one of four Little East Conference (LEC) member schools to earn the recognition, joined by Eastern Connecticut, UMass Dartmouth, and UMass Boston. The Panthers' string of seven straight is the longest in the conference.
 
Under head coach Joan Forge, the Plymouth State finished the season with a 25-4 record, surpassing the 20-win threshold for the fifth-straight full season. The Panthers won a fourth LEC regular season title in five years with a perfect 8-0 record in conference play, and made a program-record third-straight appearance in the LEC Tournament Championship match.