LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team has received the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2018-19 season.
 
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.38 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
 
The 2018-19 SMSU volleyball team finished with a GPA of 3.49 and was one of 141 NCAA Division II programs to earn the award. SMSU had nine student-athletes earn Academic All-NSIC honors while senior Taylor Reiss was named CoSIDA Google Cloud second team Academic All-American.
 
SMSU closed the 2018 season with a 23-9 overall record, appeared in its 15th straight NCAA Tournament and finished ranked No. 8 in the final AVCA Top 25 poll.
 
Southwest Minnesota State opens practice for the 2019 season on Monday, Aug. 19, with its first match set for Sept. 5 at Michigan Tech.