Volleyball Earns 2026 AVCA Team Academic Award

The Canisius volleyball team is one of 1,432 collegiate and high school programs from across the nation to earn the 2026 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2025-26 academic year, the AVCA announced Thursday.

This marks the sixth consecutive year the Golden Griffins have received this honor from the AVCA, which publicly recognizes volleyball programs that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.30-or better on a 4.0 scale, and this is the eighth time Canisius has received this team award in the last 13 years. This year's honor for Canisius also extends head coach Tom Hanna's streak of leading teams that excel in the classroom to 20-straight years, as every team he has coached (at Canisius, Akron and Marist) has earned this award from the AVCA, going back to the 2006-07 academic year.

"It comes as no surprise to see our sport have more than 1,400 teams earn the AVCA Team Academic Award again this season," AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon said. "We are grateful for the dedication of the coaches and players who make both classroom and on-court success the lifeblood of their programs."

Six of the 12 Metro Conference schools that sponsor volleyball earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2025-26 school year. Canisius' stretch of earning this honor in six consecutive years is the second-longest among Metro schools.

The 2026 Canisius volleyball season will officially get underway Aug. 28, when the Blue and Gold starts the year against Duquesne in the first match of the YSU Invitational, presented by Mercy Health, hosted by Youngstown State.

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