INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) announced 161 men's and women's teams as recipients of the 2022-23 Team Academic All-GLVC award on Monday. The GLVC recognizes each team from full-time and associate member institutions that have maintained a 3.30 grade point average for the academic year. William Jewell boasts eight programs who have earned the team distinction including women's basketball, women's golf, volleyball, women's soccer, men's golf, men's basketball, women's swimming and men's tennis.
The total of 161 honorees from 13 league schools did not reach the 2019-20 record-breaking total of 207 from 15 schools but did surpass the previous record from 2018-19 of 152 from 14 schools.
Women's basketball and women's golf led the department with team GPA of 3.75 with the former earning their 11th straight honor and the latter their sixth. Volleyball continues their streak of earning the team award in each of the 12 years the Cardinals have been members of the GLVC while women's soccer picks up their 11th consecutive honor, women's swimming their eighth and men's tennis their second. Meanwhile men's basketball boasted the highest team GPA in the league in their sport at 3.50.
Four league sports – women's lacrosse (7), women's soccer (13), women's swimming & diving (9), and volleyball (13) – saw every team above the 3.30 mark. Among the other notables, women's golf (10), softball (12), and men's tennis (10) had all but one program meet the threshold; while women's basketball (11), women's bowling (5), women's cross country (11), and men's golf (9) had all but two snag the honor.
Of the 109 women's sports, which include indoor and outdoor track & field as one, eight had more than 80 percent of its participating schools achieve the GPA milestone, including lacrosse (7/7, 100%), soccer (13/13, 100%), swimming & diving (9/9, 100%), volleyball (13/13, 100%), softball (12/13, 92.3%), golf (10/11, 90.9%), basketball (11/13, 84.6%), and cross country (11/13, 84.6%). The other three sports – tennis (9/12, 75%), track & field (9/12, 75%), and bowling (5/7, 71.4%) – were all above 70 percent.
On the men's side, 10 of the 11 (90.9%) tennis teams and nine of the 11 (81.8%) golf squads earned the honor, followed by baseball (6/13, 46.1%), cross country (6/13, 46.1%), soccer (6/13, 46.1%), track & field (5/12, 41.6%), swimming & diving (4/10, 40%), lacrosse (2/6, 33.3%), basketball (3/13, 23%), and football (1/7, 14.2%) to round out the 52 programs.
In four of the previous five seasons, women's tennis was the sport most commonly found atop each school's list, with women's golf leading the way last year; however, this season, it was women's volleyball with five. Women's tennis followed with three and women's golf and women's cross country with two, while women's basketball was atop one school's list to round out the top teams.
William Jewell Team Academic All-GLVC recipients (in order of GPA): Women's Basketball (3.75), Women's Golf (3.75), Volleyball (3.66), Women's Soccer (3.57), Men's Golf (3.51), Men's Basketball (3.50), Women's Swimming & Diving (3.49), Men's Tennis (3.37).
