LEXINGTON, Ky. - For the 11th year in a row, the University of Sioux Falls Volleyball Team has earned a spot on a prestigious list of institutions from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) for Team Academic Award recipients. USF, which had a 3.75 team grade point average in 2018-19, again earned selection to the AVCA's Academic Honor Roll for being in the Top-27 programs in NCAA Division II.
To be eligible to receive the Team Academic Award from the AVCA, teams must maintain a 3.30 grade point average and the teams with the top 27 GPAs in each division received the special recognition as an honor roll team.
Directed by ninth-year Head Coach
Joel McCartney, USF Volleyball was honored for its academic achievements by the AVCA. In McCartney's eight seasons, the teams has not dropped below a cumulative grade point average of 3.44. In the past four years, the team has had an eye-popping cumulative GPA of 3.71 or higher with the 3.75 this year which ranked second in program history (3.76, 2015-16).
McCartney spoke highly about his team when asked about the academic success of the USF Volleyball team.
"I am so proud of the academic culture within our program and the individual athletes who care so much for their process of learning," said McCartney. "It goes well beyond the court and the classroom as these women become greater learners of truth and life."
In 2018, USF finished a program-best fifth in the league with a program-best 20-10 overall mark. The Cougars had 10 student-athletes named Academic All-NSIC (3.2 GPA or higher), including eight which were named to the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence for owning a GPA of 3.6 or better. The group was led by three-time All-Academic honorees
Bria Barfnecht,
Megan Hamstad,
Makenna Rockeman and
Lexi Scott. Since joining the NSIC in 2012, the USF Volleyball Team has had 57 student-athletes earn academic all-league honors.
In a history making season, the Cougars won 14-of-20 league matches and had three all-league selections. The all-league honorees included the program's first-ever first team honorees in
Bria Barfnecht and
Lexi Scott. Sophomore
Averey Yaksich was named second team All-NSIC as USF had three-all-league honorees for the first time. In addition, the Cougars advanced to the NSIC Postseason Tournament semifinals for the first time and was ranked as high as sixth – a program-high – for the first time in the NCAA DII Central Region rankings.
Makenna Rockeman (1,285) set a career kills mark while both
Lexi Scott (1,001), and
Bria Barfnecht (1,068) also recording over 1K in kills as the trio became the first in school history to go over the 1,000 mark on the same team. Barfnecht, who was selected (May 14) as USF Female Athlete of the Year, was named Nov. 21 as USF's first-ever AVCA All-Region (Central) selection and later USF's first ever AVCA All-American.