Benet Academy middle hitter Lynney Tarnow (12) and the Redwings took over the No. 1 spot in Class 4A of this week's Michio Chicago VBA/Illprepvb.com Girl;s H.S. Rankings. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com Editor There’s a new No. 1 in Class 4A after Benet Academy (31-2) defeated Marist and Mother McAuley in a span of five days last week to leapfrog the pair after sitting at No. 3 for most of the regular season.  Otherwise, not much is expected to change between now and the start of the postseason next Tuesday.May...

Lockport visits Lincoln-Way East on Tuesday in a battle of Suthwest Suburban Conference unbeatens. (Phioto by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com Editor From Northbrook to the south side, from the western suburbs to Bloomington, after putting a ton of miles on the old heap over the past eight days, it’s time to give it a rest.My car is pretty beat up, too. Meanwhile, here are this week’s Michio Chicago VBA/Illprepvb.com Girls H.S. Rankings (with last week’s rankings in parenthesis): Class 4A rankings1. Mother McAu...

Marist rebounded from a tough three-set loss in the quarterfinals to finish fifth at last weekend's ASICS Challenge at Mother McAuley. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com Editor Congratulations to St. Charles North’s Haley Burgdorf. The 6-2 Penn State recruit has been named to the Under Armour All-American team and was set to receive her jersey prior to tonight’s game against visiting Benet Academy.The Under Armour All-American team is  a group of top high school volleyball players selected to play in the Under Ar...

Ellie Stiernagle and Benet Academy, who had their 17-match win streak snapped by Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers, Indiana), 25-13, 25-23, Saturday at the Crown Point, Indiana, tournament, will host Skutt Catholic (Omaha, Nebraska) on Thursday before the girls from the Cornhusker state compete in the ASICS Challenge at Mother McAuley. (Photo by Dave Ruggles). By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorThe IHSA finally released its sectional assignments for the girls state tournament late last week.Here are some interesting notes and personal...

To the best of our knowledge, there are no more outdoor volleyball matches scheduled like the one between DePaul College Prep and St. Ignatius or Rockford Christian's outdoor get-together with Rockford Boylan, but it will be interesting to see if the boys pick up on the trend in the spring. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com Editor As we await the IHSA’s release of the sectional assignments for the girls volleyball tournament, there were very few changes (in some classes, none at all) in this week’s rankings. The biggest news out of...

DePaul College Prep and St. Ignatius went outdoors and under the lights on Saturday, September 6, DePaul eeked out a 27-25, 30-28 victory. By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorIf you’re looking for the latest trends, you probably wouldn’t go to Nebraska, which is best known for being the birthplace of Arbor Day, hosting the Sandhills Crane migration, and being the home of innovations like the Vice Grip wrench and the Enola Gay.But Nebraska did give us something totally new recently – indoor volleyball played outdoors – when mo...

Laney Snow (18) and Normal U-High welcome back libero Emma Jean Lehnen this week. Lehnen missed the Pioneers' first sveven matches. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorJust when you think you’ve got it all figured out.The first regular-season edition of the Michio Chicago VBA/Illprepvb.com 2025 Girls H.S. Rankings saw some shuffling among the top 10 in each class, including the fall from grace by several teams hit hard by injuries.Meanwhile, we are about a week away from learning the sectional assignments for ea...

Adversity South 18 Adidas finished fifth in the 18 Open division at the AAU Boys National Volleyball Championships in Orlando. 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 EditorGame over.The boys’ club season, which began in October, was interrupted by the high school season, resumed with the 2025 AAU/JVA Windy City Round-U...

Cassidy Cage (87) and her SPVB 17 Elite teammates finished third in the 17 Open division at the 2025 AAU Girls Junior National Volleyball Championships at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. (File photo by Dave Ruggles) Notice: You may not distribute, modify, transmit, re-use, 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 EditorCongratulations to 1st Alliance...

Mohamed Abdelradi helped Lane Tech become the first team from the Chicago Public League to win a quarterfinal match at Hoffman Estates in the tournament's 33-year history. The Champions defeated O'Fallon to place third. (Photo by Dave Ruggles) By Phil BrozynskiIllprepvb.com EditorHey, nobody’s perfect.Looking back at our preseason rankings, we had five teams in the top 25 that finished out of the money by season’s end. In addition, we had 10 teams that were not ranked in the top 25 who broke into the rankings by the time the dust sett...