Women's Volleyball Earns AVCA Team Academic Award

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Wells College women's volleyball team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for their outstanding prowess in the classroom, the organization announced Wednesday. The award was issued to any volleyball team that maintained at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average on a 4.0 scale during the 2014-15 academic year.

Wells was one of 140 NCAA Division III women's programs to be selected and was also one of two schools representing the North Eastern Athletic Conference (Gallaudet University) on the list. The Express was recognized for the first time in its three-year history by the AVCA, joining 752 teams nationwide across the three NCAA divisions, NAIA, NCCAA and high schools.

The AVCA Team Academic Award has become one of the AVCA's fastest growing awards programs, seeing a surge in teams honored over the past several years. Since the 2000-01 academic year, the number of recipients have increased every single year but one, while amassing a 476 team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 752.

Wells concluded its most successful season in team history with a 23-11 record after posting a 10-2 record against NEAC competition in 2014. In only the team's third season since the modern day revival of women's volleyball in Aurora after a 30-year hiatus, Wells shattered virtually every offensive and defensive team record en route to racking up the most overall victories amongst all NEAC schools.

In total, junior Vashti Nettles (Long Beach, Calif.) and sophomore Meredith Kadjeski (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) earned First Team All-NEAC honors after stellar seasons. Freshman Anuhea Leite-Ah Yo (Hilo, Hawaii) picked up NEAC Rookie of the Year honors in addition to Second Team All-Conference merits. Head Coach Richard Gary was voted by his peers as the league's Coach of the Year.

Wells was the only NEAC school to rank within the top-three in team kills, team kills per set, team hitting percentage, team assists per set and team digs per set. Wells also tied Cobleskill St. for the best out-of-conference record amongst NEAC squads (10-8) and played a tough non-NEAC schedule that included 20-win squads from Ithaca, Scranton and St. Lawrence.