University of Tennessee Athletics
The Report Card: Volleyball Academics
November 09, 2015 | Volleyball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee volleyball program maintained its perfect multi-year graduation success rate, which was released last week.
Volleyball was one of four UT teams with a multi-year GSR score of 100, joined by men's tennis, rowing and women's golf. The multi-year score is measured from students who entered the university from 2005-06 through 2008-09.
The volleyball program has had a 100 GSR score nine consecutive years in the 11 years the score has been measured.
Tennessee has excelled in the classroom during Rob Patrick's tenure as head coach. Since the 1997-98 school year, the Vols have been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll 129 times, with eight members earning those honors last season. It is the most SEC Academic Honor Roll recipients by a conference volleyball program since 1997.
This year's squad is involved in academic studies across the board, majoring in everything from finance to biochemistry to communication to political science.
Senior Lexi Dempsey is majoring in communication studies. She is slated to graduate in December and plans to pursue her masters degree in communications at Tennessee. Fellow senior Megan Hatcher, a two-time SEC academic award winner, is working toward a degree in marketing - human resources.
In the Patrick era, every player who has completed her eligibility at Tennessee has earned a degree.
Tennessee has also been a frequent recipient of the AVCA Team Academic Award, earning honors three consecutive years from the 2010-11 school year through 2012-13. That award goes to a team that maintains a 3.30 cumulative team GPA during the academic year. In 2011, the team won both the SEC championship and the academic honor. The team made the NCAA tournament all three of those years.
Three have been named Capital One Academic All-Americans, most recently Nikki Fowler in 2010. An All-American on the court, she was also the only Tennessee volleyball player to be named academic all-district three times. She graduated with a degree in marketing.
