LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the fifth consecutive season and eighth time in the program's history, Colorado State University Pueblo has been recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) with a Team Academic Award sponsored by INTENT for the 2024-25 school year as announced by the organization on Monday.

CSU Pueblo, who finished the 2024-25 school year with a 3.625 overall GPA as a team, was one of nine schools from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) that earned an AVCA Team Academic Award and one of a record 1,450 programs from all levels of collegiate and high school volleyball that were honored for maintaining a year-long grade point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale.

"It is very exciting to see that the record-setting, on-court successes during the 2024-25 season have extended to the classroom," says AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon. "The fact that more programs earned the Team Academic Award than ever before is evidence of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their goals as both students and athletes." 

The Team Academic Award, which was initiated in 1992 by the AVCA, recognizes teams who have their dedication to the sports of volleyball with excellence in the classroom. Teams must maintain at least 3.30 cumulative team GPA on a 4.0 scale for the school year or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

CSU Pueblo, who enters the 2025 season with a new head coach in Jordan Bruere, was one of nine RMAC schools to be recognized on and one of 158 NCAA Division II women's teams to earn an AVCA Team Academic Award. During the 2024-25 season, the Pack had 12 players earn RMAC All-Academic honors and four players earn CSC Academic All-District accolades.

The other RMAC schools that earned a 2024-25 Team Academic Awards were Adams State, Chadron State College, Colorado Christian University, Colorado Mesa University, MSU Denver, Regis University, South Dakota School of Mines and Westminster College. In addition, Colorado Mesa, MSU Denver and Westminster were three of the 32 Division II schools to earn Academic Award Honor Roll, which is the top 20 percent of team GPA's in the division.

CSU Pueblo, who was coached last season by Austin Albers, closed the 2024 campaign with a 16-11 overall record and tied for fourth in the RMAC with a 9-5 record. The ThunderWolves' earned the No. 5 seed in the RMAC Tournament where they fell in four sets in the quarterfinals at No. 4 seeded Regis.

Here are the years that CSU Pueblo has earned the AVCA Team Academic Award sponsored by INTENT:

2013-14
2016-17
2017-18
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23 (AVCA Team Honor Roll)
2023-24
2024-25