The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) announced its 2020-21 Team Academic All-Conference recipients on Monday. A record 14 programs from the University of Illinois Springfield earned the award, including women's tennis which had the highest team GPA in the league.
 
UIS had 14 out of its 15 programs earn the Team Academic All-Conference Award, which goes to programs that maintain at least a 3.30 GPA for the academic year. All eight women's sports programs earned the award for the third straight year. A record six men's teams earned the Team Academic All-Conference Award.
 
Women's tennis was the top academic team at UIS last school year. It finished with a team GPA of 3.94, which was also the highest mark among all sports teams in the GLVC. Men's tennis was the top men's team for the Prairie Stars, after it collected a mark of 3.70.
 
Rounding out the top-five GPAs at UIS in 2020-21 were volleyball (3.71 GPA), men's golf (3.68), and women's soccer (3.67). Other program to win the award were women's Golf (3.55), softball (3.55), men's soccer (3.52), women's cross country (3.48), women's basketball (3.47), women's track and field (3.47), men's basketball (3.43), men's track and field (3.36), and men's cross country (3.35).
 
The UIS men's tennis team has now won this award for 11 straight seasons, and it has a UIS record with 11 overall Team Academic All-Conference Awards. Women's tennis is second overall with 10 all-time awards. Women's soccer extended its streak to nine straight years with a 3.30 GPA or higher, and it is tied with volleyball with nine overall honors. Women's golf rounds out the top-five at UIS with eight awards in the athletics department's 11 years in the GLVC.