Men’s club volleyball has a strong tradition at Illinois, dating back to 1984. But for all three of the program’s teams, this season was especially remarkable.

The Blue Team is the Fighting Illini’s “A” team and participates in the most tournaments each year. This season, it won its second consecutive Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Division I title while riding a 35-match winning streak. The title complemented its Big Ten Men’s Volleyball Association (BTMVA) regular season and tournament championship victories.

And plans for next season are even more ambitious.

“This year we really focused on our serving and defense,” said Doug Burchett, club vice president and captain of the Blue Team. “I would like to see our team become a better ‘out of system’ team, which means getting kills when we don’t have a perfect pass. Otherwise, our goal is to get back to that championship game and win a National Championship.”

In Division II play, the Orange (B) Team clinched the MIVA Championship by defeating rival University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and ended its official MIVA season without losing a single game en route to snagging its fifth consecutive MIVA title. The Orange Team also claimed the BTMVA title for its division, as well as the BTMVA tournament championship.

“Our team’s biggest accomplishment was the amount of respect that we earned from all the other programs in the country,” Orange Team member Brendan Ori said. “It’s not easy fielding one really good team, but Illinois’ club team has two legit teams, and the (White Team) is not that far behind. It speaks volumes about the amount of talent that we have and the amount of work that we put in.”

Both the Blue and Orange teams concluded the season by travelling to Dallas, where they competed in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) National Volleyball Championships.

The Blue Team competed in D-I and finished second in the gold bracket, losing to Lakeland College in two close games. Meanwhile, Illinois Orange took third in the D-III gold bracket after losing to eventual second-place finishers, UC Berkeley.

While they may not have won it all at the NIRSA championships, the Illini did earn plenty of individual accolades. Blue Team members Kevin Deeke and Miles Kilgallon were each named to the D-I first team all-tournament while teammate Joe Toth was named all-tournament libero. In D-III play, Orange Team member Craig Podalak was named the all-tournament libero.

Still, second place doesn’t sit too well.

“To be honest, the end of our season was very disappointing compared to how great the rest of our season was,” said Burchett. “I felt that there was no way it could end without the two’s being crowned National Champs. Well, we lost to Cal-Berkeley in the semi’s in a game that we should have won. We were the best team in our division, and next year we are going to come back and prove it.”

The White Team may be Illinois’ C team, but that doesn’t make it any less competitive. In fact, the 2007-2008 season marked a key milestone for the team, as it claimed the first ever tournament victory for the Illinois White at the Bradley Tournament after defeating St. Ambrose in three games.

That particular weekend was especially historic for the club, as each team won its own respective tournament on the same weekend for the first time in program history. Combined, they went 20-0 in matches and 40-1 in games.

Playing on the White Team is about more than just winning, though.

“What I really love about this team is everybody gets along. I’ve never been on a team with such good team chemistry,” said Steve Hanowsky, captain of the White Team.

“I play back row, so I just pass the ball and watch them do their thing, and I’ve never seen it like that before. It’s really fun to watch.”

To wrap up the season, the White Team traveled to the University of Chicago to compete in the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball Association (MCVA) Championship, where it placed third out of 16 teams after falling to in-state rival Western Illinois.

But the White Team expects to come back even stronger next season, especially with all of its members returning.

“Next year we should be really good, we should be even better,” Hanowsky said. “We want to definitely win a lot more next year to show that we can be just as good as anybody else.”

One of the overriding themes of the club is its camaraderie and desire to win. The combination is strong, and even though the season may be over, they already have high hopes for next year.

“This has been an unbelievable year in terms of chemistry on and off the court,” Burchett said. “When we lost in the championship game, we all huddled up for one last time, and there was no reason to hang our heads because we definitely proved we were the best team in the country this year. I was so proud of our team this year and how much we stuck together.”