Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University volleyball team was honored for its work in the classroom by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) as one of 189 teams to the earn the 2019 AVCA Team Academic Award.
The award, which began for the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that display excellence in the classroom by maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale. In all, the AVCA honored a total of 1,126 teams.
During the 2018-19 academic year, the Colonials posted a team grade point average (GPA) of 3.846, the highest of RMU's 16 intercollegiate NCAA Division I programs. That mark was also the highest in the Northeast Conference (NEC) by any program since 2014-15.
RELATED: AVCA Breaks Record With 1,126 Teams Awarded For Academic Excellence
The performance by the Robert Morris volleyball program helped bolster the Colonials in earning the
2019 NEC Institutional Academic Award.
Each of the 15 student-athletes that made up the 2018 roster for RMU have posted a cumulative GPA of 3.60 or higher. Setter
Whitney Brown, a biology major who will be a junior at Robert Morris in the fall, has maintained a perfect 4.00 through two seasons as a member of the Colonials. She was named to the
2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District 2 Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
In addition to Brown, outside hitters
Mirna Sarjanovic and
Erika Wilt each have posted a perfect 4.00 GPA through two seasons in an RMU uniform. Sarjanovic is a management major, while Wilt studies biology.
Led by head coach
Dale Starr, who enters his 10th season in at RMU in 2019, Robert Morris returns 12 letterwinners, including middle blocker
Emma Granger, who was named to the 2018 All-NEC First Team. In earning her second consecutive first team nod, Granger led the Colonials in kills (286), attack percentage (.292), service aces (53) and blocks (103) as a sophomore last season. A psychology major, Granger has recorded a 3.70 cumulative GPA.
Robert Morris
opens its 2019 season with the first NCAA Division I competition at the
UPMC Events Center by hosting Manhattan at Noon Friday, August 30, as part of the RMU Sheraton Invitational.
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