BRIEFLY: SEMO VOLLEYBALL RECEIVES ACADEMIC AWARD

The American Volleyball Coaches Association has honored the Southeast Missouri State University women's volleyball team with the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 1998-99 academic year.

The award honors teams that displayed excellence in the classroom, maintaining at least a 3.3 cumulative team grade-point average during the 1998-99 academic year.

Southeast was one of 25 teams at the Division I level to earn the award. The Otahkians tied for the fifth-highest grade-point average with Louisiana State, both posting a 3.45 GPA.

Wichita State had the highest team GPA (3.56), followed by Eastern Michigan (3.53), Memphis (3.48) and Eastern Washington (3.47).

"I am very happy that the athletes work hard on the court and in the classroom," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon. "Student-athletes should be very involved in academics as well as athletics and last year's squad worked very hard for this honor."

The Otahkians begin the 1999 season Wednesday night with a match against Arkansas State at the Show Me Center.