December 15, 2008

Volleyball Named a Recipient of GLVC SAAC Sportsmanship Award

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team has been named as a recipient of Great Lakes Valley Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Sportsmanship Awards for the fall season.

Rockhurst University’s men’s soccer team, the UMSL volleyball team, Missouri S&T’s men’s cross country team, University of Wisconsin Parkside’s women’s cross country team, and Kentucky Wesleyan College and Rockhurst University women’s soccer teams were honored by their peers as best displaying ‘Good Sportsmanship’ during the 2008 season. It is the second straight year the Tritons volleyball team has earned the honor.

Under the guidance of first-year head coach Trent Jones, the Tritons posted their first 20-win season since 1996 with a 23-8 record. Additionally, the team finished with a 14-3 league mark, the most GLVC wins in school history. Jones was named the GLVC Coach of the Year, while freshman Weslie Gaff was tabbed as the GLVC Freshman of the Year.

A team award will be presented to each of the six squads claiming the team sportsmanship awards. An overall ‘Good Sportsmanship’ award will be presented to the institution with the most points the 2008-09 academic year. Northern Kentucky claimed the inaugural award in 2007-08.

The SAAC Sportsmanship Award is determined by votes of the 13 GLVC member institutions’ campus SAACs. The committees select their top three choices in each sport and base their decision on their view of sportsmanship. Each team that received a first-choice vote received 3 points, second-choice received 2 points and the third-choice received 1 point. The GLVC sponsors the award in each of the league’s 17 championship sports.