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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman volleyball program took home top honors as the recipients of the Carson-Newman Director's Cup as the athletic department recognized a record 220 Eagle Scholars at its annual ceremony Tuesday night at Holt Fieldhouse.

The Director's Cup is presented to the top academic team on campus which best represents the values espoused by the Eagle Scholar Program as selected by the Eagle Scholar Committee.  Previous winners include women's basketball (2015), baseball (2016), softball (2017) and swimming (2018). 

For a seventh straight year, the Carson-Newman Eagle Scholars program saw a record number of Carson-Newman student athletes named to the school's athletic department honor roll.  

Last year, the program set a record with 213 honorees. This year's class is 220 members strong.

The Eagle Scholars Program recognizes academic achievements among Carson-Newman student-athletes. To become an Eagle Scholar, student-athletes must have a GPA of 3.25 or higher. Eagle Scholars receive a patch to wear on their uniforms during regular season competition.  This year also marks the second year that the program also includes the introduction of the Gold Scholars. These honorees will receive a golden patch to wear on their uniforms for maintaining a GPA higher than 3.75. There are 50 such gold scholars in this year's program, a decrease from last year's 61.  However, that is because Carson-Newman introduced Platinum Scholars into this year's program, which recognizes students with perfect 4.0s.  This year, there are 36 individuals being recognized. 

Carson-Newman is the only school in the South Atlantic Conference to offer such a program.

2013 - 72

2014 - 93

2015 - 128

2016 - 160

2017 - 177

2018 - 213

2019 - 220

Membership in the program has increased 205 percent from its inaugural year to now.