COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 30, 2022) – The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced the winners of the 2021-22 Brechler Awards with the Colorado State University Pueblo women's volleyball team landing the leagues highest grade-point average for the year.
 
The ThunderWolves earned the programs first Brechler Award and the departments first since the 2018-19 season after leading the RMAC with a final team GPA of 3.667 over the last two semesters.
 
"This award is an acknowledgment of the effort that our student-athletes put into their academics and that our staff puts into recruiting," head coach Austin Albers stated. "First and foremost, I need to acknowledge the amazing young women of our program who value the high expectations and academic standard that we've set for Pack volleyball. They continue to be a gold standard in our athletic department and we are very proud of them."
 
"Second, I need to acknowledge my staff," Albers continued. "Our assistant coaches take on a big role in managing our academic success plan and their buy-in to the standard makes the accomplishment achievable."
 
The Pack landed 16 student-athletes to the RMAC All-Academic team (tied with MSU Denver for the most in the league), which included Jazzy Espinoza (Sr., Cheyenne, Wyo.) and Elaine Thibadeau (Sr., Monument, Colo.) on the All-Academic First-Team.
 
"We decided two years ago to make academics a larger focus in our recruiting process," Albers continued. "This is something that we pride ourselves on as we aim to not only build a championship team on the court, but to also lead the way in the classroom. It's important to us that our prospects know that if you come to CSU Pueblo, we will be developing them with the same intent in the classroom as we do on the volleyball court. It's our job to build elite student-athletes and this award serves as a reminder that our efforts are not going unnoticed."
 
The award is named after Paul W. Brechler, the first Commissioner of the RMAC (1976-1990) and is presented to the team that compiles the highest grade-point average (GPA) for each of the leagues 21 sports.