The Central Community College volleyball team is among 973 teams that have earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (ACVA) Team Academic Award for the 2017-2018 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 835 to set an all-time high.

The Raiders posted a combined grade point average of 3.73 for the 2017-18 academic year, which is the highest team GPA in the 23 years that head coach Mary Young has been guiding the program.

CCC has won the ACVA Team Academic Award for eight consecutive years and 14 times overall in program history.

"We are pleased to once again receive the AVCA Team Academic Award," said Young. "The culture we have created in our volleyball program with academic and athletic excellence is something we are extremely proud of. The CCC faculty and staff play a significant role in our success and create a tremendous foundation for us to be successful in both arenas."

The award honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

"We want our team members to be the best version of themselves in the classroom and on the court and they are consistently reaching that expectation," said Young. "We are competing on the court and in the classroom. Those skills will serve our student-athletes well in life." 

Three other Nebraska community colleges earned the ACVA Team Academic Award. They are North Platte Community College, Northeast Community College and Southeast Community College. In all, 26 community colleges across the nation earned the award.

The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while amassing a 619-team increase over the span of the last decade. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 973.

Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 25-year history, with exactly 8,461 awards been given out in total.