{"id":350285,"date":"2026-07-23T20:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350285\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:01:08","slug":"south-florida-volleyball-earns-avca-team-academic-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350285\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida Volleyball Earns AVCA Team Academic Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. (July 23, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 The University of South Florida volleyball team received the 2026 AVCA Team Academic Award, which recognizes its academic achievements, the organization announced Thursday.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Bulls were among 1,432 collegiate and high school volleyball programs nationwide recognized with the 2026 AVCA Team Academic Award. The honor is presented to teams that maintain a yearlong grade-point average of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nUSF continues to demonstrate its commitment to excellence both on and off the court, with the Bulls&#8217; academic achievements highlighting the dedication of the team&#8217;s student-athletes in the classroom.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe AVCA Team Academic Award celebrates volleyball programs that excel academically while competing at a high level, recognizing the balance student-athletes maintain between their academic and athletic responsibilities.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nTickets:<br \/>\nFor more information or to purchase season tickets, visit the official website at gousfbulls.com or contact the ticket office at 1-800-Go-Bulls or click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forms.fanthreesixty.com\/_volleyball_ticket_interest_form?mnemonic=usf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFollow us:<br \/>\nBe sure to follow South Florida volleyball on social media (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/usfvolleyball\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/usfvolleyball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/usfvb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAbout South Florida Volleyball<br \/>\nHead coach\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gousfbulls.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/coaches\/jolene-shepardson\/5414\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"5414\" target=\"_blank\">Jolene Shepardson<\/a> enters her seventh season at the helm of her alma mater in 2026. Named head coach on January 8, 2020, as a player she helped\u00a0lead the Bulls to two conference championships and a pair of NCAA tournament appearances. As head coach, she led the Bulls back to the NCAA Tournament in 2025 for the first time since she was a player in 2002 and guided USF to the 2024 AAC regular-season championship, earning her first Coach of the Year Honor. In 2023, the Bulls won the American Conference East Division, made a postseason appearance in the NIVC, and advanced to the Fab Four to mark the longest postseason run in program history.<\/p>\n<p>South Florida Volleyball has won nine Player of the Year honors, most recently with <a href=\"https:\/\/gousfbulls.com\/sports\/womens-volleyball\/roster\/maria-clara-andrade\/15715\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"15715\" target=\"_blank\">Maria Clara Andrade<\/a> winning American Conference honors in back-to-back years in 2024 and 2025. The Bulls have also earned four Setter of the Year honors, most recently with Caroline Dykes being recognized in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>South Florida volleyball has made eight NCAA Tournament appearances and won 13 conference titles since the program&#8217;s inception in 1972. The Bulls play in The Corral (1,000), located adjacent to the Yuengling Center on the USF campus in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2013\u00a0#GoBulls\u00a0\u2013<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (July 23, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 The University of South Florida volleyball team received the 2026 AVCA Team Academic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-350285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}