Volleyball earns AVCA Team Academic Award
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Simpson volleyball team continued its strong tradition of academic success by earning the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the fifth straight season.
Head coach Lana Smith's squad achieved a 3.463 team grade point average during the 2012-13 academic year, surpassing the required 3.30. Simpson has earned the award every year since 2008 and has seven awards total.
The Storm are one of five Iowa Conference squads on the list of 623 teams, a new all-time high for the award. Central, Coe, Dubuque and Wartburg were also on the list of 93 Division III schools.
Eight Simpson players landed on the Iowa Conference All-Academic Team in 2012: McKaylie Croghan, Haley Danforth, Kira Klepel, Kim Rogers, Alexa Rohach, Audrey Schuttler, Katelynn Sjoblom and Morgan Terpstra.
Simpson returns five starters from last year's 12-22 squad, including honorable mention all-conference performers Tabitha Blaser (So., OH) and Katie Kieffer (So., S). The season begins Aug. 30 when the Storm travel to New York for the NYU Labor Day Invitational.
