The Youngstown State volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the 2021-22 season, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the AVCA announced on Monday. It is the ninth straight season that the Penguins have earned the distinction.

The award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale or 4.10 on a 5.0 scale.

The Penguins had a GPA above 3.5 in both semesters during the 2021-22 academic year, posting a 3.56 mark in the fall and a 3.51 in the spring. Individually, Aimee Beaupre and Morgan Cleevely led the way by achieving a perfect 4.0 GPA in both semesters. Lexie Beeke and Paula Gursching had a 4.0 in the fall semester, and Lauren Lask, Amanda Lebioda and Nadia Pace joined Beaupre and Cleevely at 4.0 in the spring. Impressively, five of the 15 student-athletes on the official roster in the spring had a 4.0.

"Academic achievement does not happen by accident," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "I'm so proud of the hundreds of coaching staffs that make excellence in the classroom a priority."