Illinois Volleyball Teams

Volleyball in Illinois is played in a number of different leagues at a number of different levels inside gymnasiums around the state. The teams in these leagues vary between high school and college teams playing at some of the highest levels of student athletics as well as recreational teams who take volleyball very seriously.

  1. Fighting Illini

    • The University of Illinois Women's Volleyball team is regularly a Top 25 power in the NCAA women's volleyball rankings every season, with a strong team that always competes for the national championship. They take on the team name of all other sports teams at the University of Illinois as the Fighting Iliini, named after the Illini Native American tribe which lived in that great lakes region of the country. The Fighting Illini play in the Big Ten Conference and are often in the running to win the conference championship. This is a top school to attend for someone who wants to play volleyball at the collegiate level.

    Illinois Blue and Illinois Orange

    • The Fighting Illini also have a men's team, but it is a club team and not sponsored by the NCAA. There are often broken into two subteams of 15 players, known as the Illinois Blue and the Illinois Orange, respectively. They take their volleyball seriously and have had success over the years, having been in the Top Ten at the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association National Championships every year since 1997.

    Sky High Volleyball

    • Sky High Volleyball puts together elite high school volleyball players from the northern Illinois area to compete in club championships around the nation. Their athletes are regularly given scholarships for volleyball to major universities around the country, and to date more than $12.5 million dollars has been collectively given to players through their program and club teams. Sky High has taught volleyball for the last 21 years, and competing and winning Central Zone events every year--a tournament series considered to be the toughest in the nation.