LEXINGTON, Ky.— The Colorado Mesa University indoor and beach volleyball teams have both been named as recipients of American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Awards, sponsored by INTENT, the AVCA announced on Monday.

The Mavs' indoor team also received additional distinction of AVCA Team Academic Honor Roll for having a team GPA in the top 20 percent of GPA's for NCAA Division II.

The indoor squad, whose head coach was Dave Fleming in the fall of 2024, has now been recognized by the AVCA in 14 straight years and 17 times overall.  The Mavs finished with a 23-6 overall record and were nationally-ranked throughout the season while qualifying for their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

Fleming then departed for the head coaching role at NCAA Division I North Texas after 20 seasons at CMU and was replaced by Austin Albers in February.  Albers had been the head coach at CSU Pueblo for the past six seasons.  His former CSU Pueblo team was also recognized for the fifth straight year by the AVCA on Monday.

Bri Strong assisted both Fleming during the fall season and Albers throughout the spring semester.

The Maverick beach squad, whose head coach is David Skaff, received a seventh straight and eighth overall AVCA Academic Award.  Skaff's squad won a school-record 21 matches in the Spring of 2025 and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Gold Bracket at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships to cap a strong 21-11 2025 campaign.

The Mavericks were one of 14 NCAA Division II beach teams and one of 158 indoor teams to earn the honor.

A total of 1,450 programs from all levels of collegiate and high school volleyball were honored by maintaining a year-long grade point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. 

"It is very exciting to see that the record-setting, on-court successes during the 2024-25 season have extended to the classroom," says AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon. "The fact that more programs earned the Team Academic Award than ever before is evidence of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their goals as both students and athletes." 

The awards were initiated in the 1992-93 academic year.