Five-foot-7 junior defensive specialist Sarah Jensen (Barrington) and her teammates won SPVB 18 Red's third consecutive national championship in the 18 Club division at the 50th annual AAU Girls Junior National Championships in Orlando, Florida. (File photo by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorThe dust has barely settled on the 2023 girls’ club season and tryouts for upcoming season have already begun.Although Illinois produced no national championships in the Open divisions at the USAV tournament in Chicago or...
The boys take center stage at the 2024 SPVB Presidents Day Challenge
SPVB 16 Elite's Greyson Covay (24) slips a kill past a pair of Predators 18U Boys Legacy (Kitchener, California) defenders while Adam Hartung (57) and Benjamin Brown (23) look on. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) https://youtu.be/mUr4NvUXil4 By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorWhile most Illinois boys’ club teams have disbanded until mid-June to prepare for the spring high school season, a few die-hard souls gathered prior to going their separate ways for the 2024 SPVB Presidents Day Challenge at the Great Lakes Volleyball Center in Aurora.H...
Schneiderman paces Forreston, new faces at St. Charles East; more ’23 previews
Setter Sarah Musial i(5) s one of only a few returning players for 2022 IHSA Class 4A semifinalist St. Charles East. (Photos by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com Editor The Illinios girls high school volleyball season begins in earnest in just a few days, and today Illprepvb.com continues its annual series of previews of the teams, players and coaches whose ultimate goal is a trip to Redbird (now CEFCU) Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal. Here is nearly everything you need to know about m...
Here are the very latest Michio Chicago VBA/Illprepvb.com Boys Club Rankings
MOD Elite and lvirtually every other club in Illinois will compete in the 2024 AAU/JVA Brew City Battle on January 27-28 in Milwaukee. Notice: You may not distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, re-post, or use the content of the Site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio, and video, without Illprepvb.com, LLC’s written permission. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorNow that the local teams have returned from sunny California and last weekend’s 2024 SoCal Cup: The Open Championship at the Los Angel...
Arizona Storm brings the thunder, denies 1st Alliance 16 Gold a national title
1st Alliance 16 Gold reached the championship match of the 16 Open division at the USAV Girls Junior National Championship at McCormick Place on Thursday, but suffered a heartbreaking 27-25, 25-23 loss to sixth-seeded Arizona Storm 16 Thunder (Phoenix, Arizona). By Randy WhalenSpecial to Illprepvb.comA journey that started last November ended Thursday before a packed crowd on a highlighted court at McCormick Place. There, the 1st Alliance 16 Gold volleyball team lived up to its billing as the top-ranked team in the country and advanced...
Simon Bratt, Wheaton Warrenville South light up Lyons for fourth win in row
Wheaon Warrenville South made it four in a row to start the young season, defeating visiting Lyons Township, 25-11, 25-21, on Thursday. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorYou never want to take any opponent lightly, but even with three earlier games on the schedule, Wheaton Warrenville South’s Simon Bratt admitted that Thursday’s visit by Lyons Township was the game the Tigers had been pointing to all week.“This entire week, as a team, we were looking forward to this,” Bratt said. “They (Lyons Township) were really good last year. I w...
Catching up with the girls’ club scene, including rankings and qualifiers
SPVB 18 White dropped only two sets while going 9-0 and winning the 18 Club division at last weekend's JVA World Challenge in Louisville, Kentucky. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorIt’s time to catch up with the girls’ club teams from Illinois or that feature several players from Illinois.To date, 11 teams in the 18s age group, ten 17s teams and six 16s have punched their tickets to the 2023 USAV Girls 18s Junior National Championship in Columbus, Ohio, on April 28-30, and the 2023 USAV Girls Junior 14s-17s National Championship at ...
Joliet West puts the clamps on Lockport; Willowbrook silences the doubters
Lockport's Haley Rak (3) soars to clear the block attempt by Joliet West's Peyton Darguzis (18) during the Tigers' sectional championship victory Wednesday at Oswego. Photos by Dave Ruggles) By Randy WhalenSpecial to Illprepvb.comWith his team having an excellent first half of the season, Joliet West girls' volleyball coach Chris Lincoln had some prophetic words. "No coach is going to be upset at being 18-1," he said on September 26 following a close win over Minooka. "But we have to get every girl playing on the same level at the same tim...
Where are Illinois’ top girls’ volleyball recruits in the Class of ’23, ’24, ’25 headed?
(Updated 7/26) Benet Academy's 5-8 junior libero Aniya Warren from the Class of 2025 and 1st Alliance VBC has committed to Indiana University. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) Illprepvb.com is creating a list of the top players in Illinois in the Classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025 who have committed to a college or university to continue their volleyball careers. All coaches and club directors have been invited to provide the names of their players who should be on the list. The attached list features the names of players that have been submitted so fa...
Nathan Grutza does it all as Plainfield East stops Plainfield North in SPC finale
Plainfield East's Kendall Killins (2) had 11 kills in the Bengals' victory Thursday at Plainfield North. (File photo by Dave Ruggles) By Matt Le CrenSpecial to Illprepvb.comPlainfield East coach Jeff Wilkie left nothing to chance going into Thursday’s regular season finale against host Plainfield North.“We’ve been preparing for this all week, watching film,” Wilkie said. “I found a whole lot of crowd noise on a YouTube video and played it in our gym one day, just because of how loud it was in our gym last year when they were at our house.“I...