This season, every eligible member of the Garnet volleyball team earned a spot on the Centennial Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes non-freshman student-athletes who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.40 or greater.

In 2015, Swarthmore led the conference with nine out of a possible 10 selections and saw Sarah Wallace ’18 named the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Performer of the Year. The Garnet also received their seventh consecutive Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association and 11th total under head coach Harleigh Chwastyk.

Not bad for a team finishing a year with a program-best 27 wins, its seventh playoff berth in eight years, and one of the best winning percentages in Division III. Swarthmore also won 23 contests in straight sets and captured its second consecutive Eastern College Athletics Conference title.

Chwastyk, who was a two-sport student-athlete at Connecticut’s Trinity College, made the student-athlete balance a core principle of the program and designates a Faculty & Staff Appreciation Game to give the academic community an opportunity to see the multitudes contained by our students.

“Our intelligence is a huge strength—we are able to think outside the box strategically and be unconventional,” she explains. “In the classroom and on the court, our student-athletes work in harmony as teammates and leaders.”