Volleyball teams honored

Peter Papachronopoulos Staff Writer

On Aug. 5, the Vassar volleyball program accomplished something no other men’s and women’s teams in the country did: they were bothhonored with the Game Plan/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award. The award is bestowed on teams who have maintained a 3.30 average GPA.

“The AVCA Team Academic Award is significant to us this year because both our women’s and our men’s volleyball team won it, and we’re the only school in the country who did that,” said Kimberly Goldstein ’07.

Goldstein, an important role-player on Vassar’s women’s volleyball team, was excited to discuss the AVCA award. When asked why her and her teammates were so enthusiastic about receiving it, she said, “I feel that [Vassar’s men’s and women’s volleyball team] really stress academics, and make it a huge part of our lives. That’s why we came to Vassar, to pursue our academic studies very seriously.”

The AVCA award, initiated in the 1992-1993 academic year, is just icing on the cake for Goldstein and her teammates. They are honored to be one of the 274 teams nationwide chosen for the award. (However, for them the true reward for their diligent effort comes in the form of the excellent grades they receive during their playing season.) This reward also lies in the knowledge that their academic and athletic performances are intertwined, integral parts of their lives.

“[Our] coaches really stress academic performance, and we have an academic tracking system to help us so we don’t slip,” said Goldstein. She strongly supports this system, which she believes is a great tool for helping athletes maintain a focused, organized lifestyle. “We are all very busy, and it’s nice to have such a great support system,” she added.

Despite the constant demands in their lives, both physical and mental, Goldstein expressed confidence in both Vassar’s men’s and women’s volleyball team’s ability to stay on track in the future.

“We have won this award in the past, and I’m sure we’ll do it again in the future,” predicted Goldstein. “We’ve integrated schoolwork so thoroughly into our routine that now we just expect ourselves to perform well academically. We have the same coaches for both teams, so it’s really the same framework that we [Vassar’s men’s and women’s volleyball team] are in. We really support each other.”
With an academic as well as athletic support system in place, Vassar’s men’s and women’s volleyball teams are certainly poised to repeat their incredible accomplishment in the future.