Academic honors have been common for the Salukis over the past few years.

The team earned their eighth consecutive American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award this past season with a spring 2013 cumulative GPA of 3.628. The award requires a cumulative team GPA of 3.30 or higher, and was given to 130 NCAA Division I schools.

Four players made First-Team Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Honors last season. Senior Alysia Mayes was named to the Academic All-District team while senior Bailey Yeager earned Academic All-District and was a third-team Academic All-American selection.

Head Coach Justin Ingram had only positive things to say about last year’s seniors.

“The senior class that we had this past year (had) great characters, great backgrounds and certainly studied a variety of different things,” Ingram said.

Rachael Brown, an exercise science graduate from Brownsburg, Ind. was one of the four to make the First-Team MVC Scholar-Athlete team.

Brown said academics were taught to be important since her freshman year.

“I think it has been stressed since we got here,” Brown said. “We are students and to be successful athletes, we have to be able to play.”

Mayes, an exercise science graduate from Ashkum, was not only named a First-Team MVC Scholar-Athlete but also a First-Team All-MVC performer.

Mayes said their first job is to be a student, which also leads to a successful life after volleyball.

“Obviously a priority of being a student-athlete is the student comes first and that’s why you are really here is to do well in the classroom,” she said. “Being successful at that and doing well as a whole, kind of helps you be overall successful.”

Kristina Stepps, assistant athletic director for student services, said when teams are able to keep their grades up, it makes her job easier. She said even though they expect teams to win academic awards, it is still exciting when they receive the honor.

“It is very rewarding, you realize you are making a difference to the students,” she said.

Ingram said the players want to be as competitive in the classroom as they are athletically. He said when he saw the GPA that his team posted the last two semesters, it showed the hard work they had put into their studies.

“It is like a proud parent; it demonstrates the hard work they are putting in.” he said.