USC Beach Volleyball Earns USMC/AVCA Team Academic Honors

Women’s Beach Volleyball | July 18, 2022

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The five-time national champion USC beach volleyball team received the 2021-22 USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award and earned Honor Roll distinction as a team within the top 20-percent of grade-point averages in the beach volleyball division, the AVCA announced on Monday, July 18.
 
The award—co-presented by the United States Marine Corps and the American Volleyball Coaches Association—was first initiated during the 1992-93 academic year and honors volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale. More than 1,200 collegiate and high school volleyball teams earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award this year, as the program celebrates its 30th anniversary.
 
“Academic achievement doesn’t 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.”
 
The Women of Troy have received the AVCA’s Team Academic Award in each of the last three seasons under head coach Dain Blanton. USC was also one of eight teams to also win a national championship in the same season and was among a record-setting 54 collegiate beach volleyball squads to receive the honor this season.
 
Under third-year head coach Dain Blanton, the USC beach volleyball team captured its fourth NCAA Championship (fifth national title) and fourth Pac-12 crown in 2022. The Women of Troy finished the year ranked No. 1 and had a record of 37-1 with a 36-match win streak intact at the end. USC added four AVCA All-Americans to its history books with the four-time selection of Tina Graudina as well as the third-career honor for Sammy Slater. Graudina was named the Pac-12’s Player of the Year a third time and earned Pac-12 and AVCA Pair of the Year honors with partner Hailey Harward, who was also tabbed an AVCA All-American along with sophomore Megan Kraft.
 
For more information on the USC beach volleyball team, a complete schedule, and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/beach. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow the team on Instagram and on Twitter @USCBeach.