LEXINGTON, Ky. – Already recognized as the smartest team in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the Seattle Pacific volleyball squad now has received national honors for its work in the classroom.
 
The Falcons were named as one of the recipients of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award.
 
This is the 15th time Seattle Pacific has made the national academic list.
 
The Falcons had a cumulative team grade-point average of 3.83. In the GNAC, that was the best mark for any team in any sport, female or male.
 
The AVCA awards program, which began during the 1992-93 school year, requires a minimum team cumulative of 3.30.
 
 

"It's great that the put the same level of dedication and diligence into their studies and establish a good culture on our team of doing homework on road trips and helping each other out with studying and figuring out what it teaks to be successful at SPU academically," head coach Jason Rhine said. "They continue to do a great job and I hope they can keep passing it down to incoming classes as they come in for maintaining strong GPAs and helping them achieve their academic goals."
 
Brianna Ingram and Allison Wilks both had GPAs in the 3.90-plus range, while Abigail Cunningham, Hannah Hair, Austin Ibale, Maddie Pruden, Lindsay Rosenthal, and Emily Tulino were all in the 3.8s.
 
Seattle Pacific was one of four schools from the GNAC to earn the award. Joining the Falcons were Alaska Fairbanks, Central Washington, and Northwest Nazarene.
 
The 2023 season for the Falcons SPU on Friday, Sept. 1, at 10:00 a.m. against Lewis in the Seaside Invitational. That match will be in San Marcos, California. The rest of the tournament will be played at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. The Falcons will face host Point Loma on Sept. 1 at 5:00 p.m., and also will play twice on Saturday the 2nd: Biola at 9:00 a.m. and Cal State San Marcos at 2:00 p.m.