LEXINGTON, Ky. — The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced its academic awards on Monday with Concordia-St. Paul volleyball earning the title of NCAA Division II Team Academic Champions while also being named to the Team Academic Honor Roll and earning the Team Academic Award for the 22nd consecutive year. 

The label of Team Academic Champion is new for 2025 and will be given annually to the programs with the highest GPA in their respective divisions. The Team Academic Award is given to programs that achieve a year-long grade-point average of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale while the Team Academic Honor Roll celebrates programs in the top 20% of GPAs for their division.
 
The Golden Bears have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award in each of their 22 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey. CSP's streak of 22 consecutive seasons trails only Wayne State (Neb.)'s streak of 23 in a row at the NCAA Division II level.
 
A record number of volleyball programs have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award sponsored by INTENT. More than 1,450 collegiate and high school volleyball programs maintained a year-long grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale), to earn the award for their classroom excellence during the recently completed academic year.
 
"It is very exciting to see that the record-setting, on-court successes during the 2024-25 season have extended to the classroom," said 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."

Earlier this year, Concordia volleyball had seven student athletes named to the NSIC All-Academic squad while four Golden Bears earned CSC Academic All-District honors. Senior setter Teagan Starkey was named CSC Academic All-America First Team for the second straight year and earned CSC Academic All-American of the Year for Division II Volleyball honors.