Volleyball is a popular sport in the United States with both male and female participants of all ages. Almost all high schools and colleges in the United States have female volleyball teams, and most regions of the country have developmental programs for girls of all ages as well. While many areas of the country are forming male teams and development programs, there are still fewer opportunities for young male athletes to play volleyball in the United States than for young female athletes.[1][2] Men's volleyball is a fast-growing sport among high schools, with 36 states having male volleyball programs (though in several of these states, it is organized as a club sport and not sanctioned by the state's high school governing body).[3] Most men's seasons are in the spring while women's seasons take place primarily in the fall; however, there are a few men's teams such as in Wisconsin, Virginia, and New York who play in the fall as well.[4]
As a professional sport, volleyball has had limited success in the United States. International Volleyball Association was a co-ed professional league that existed from 1975 to 1980. Numerous attempts have been made to start professional indoor women's volleyball leagues. Major League Volleyball was a women's league with six teams that played for two-and-a-half seasons from 1987 to 1989 with games shown on ESPN on tape delay; it folded mid-season in 1989, however, due to financial losses.[5]USA Volleyball Cup is an annual indoor volleyball championship. Two-man and two-woman professional beach volleyball leagues have done better, most notably the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), but none have gained a wide following that would get them consistent coverage by the major television networks. In 2002, United States Professional Volleyball League was begun as a women's professional indoor league, but only lasted one season. In 2004 and again in 2005, NBC aired the Nissan Championship series, with Fox Sports carrying the majority of the season.
There has been a large push within the volleyball community to provide professional outlets for developing athletes. As of 2019 there are currently two leagues that branch across the United States. First of these is the National Volleyball Association (NVA) founded in 2017. The NVA currently has 12 teams. The second league is the Volleyball League Of America (VLA) founded in 2019 and has 8 men's Tier 1 teams, 32 men's Tier 2 teams and 8 women's teams spread across the United States.[6]
Professional leagues saw a resurgence in the 2020s, starting with Athletes Unlimited Volleyball (AUV) in 2021.[7] This women's indoor league has a unique format, with 30 games taking place over five weeks and players changing teams weekly.[8] In 2024, the first Pro Volleyball Federation season started, which featured 7 women's teams.[9] They expanded to 8 teams in 2025, with 2 more teams set to join the league in 2026.[10] League One Volleyball (LOVB) was started in 2020 as a network of youth volleyball clubs, and expanded in 2025 to include a women's professional league called LOVB Pro.[11]Major League Volleyball (MLV) is set to launch in 2026, with the Omaha Supernovas of the PVF moving over to become the league's founding franchise.[12] This will bring the number of professional women's indoor volleyball leagues in the United States up to 4.
A new indoor professional league, the Premier Volleyball League (sanctioned by USA Volleyball), began in 2012 with a women's division. In 2013 the PVL incorporated and launched a men's division. The PVL was discontinued in 2017.[15]
Volleyball is a popular NCAA sport, mostly for women. In the 2013-14 school year, 1064 NCAA member schools, 329 of them in the top-level Division I, sponsored women's volleyball at the varsity level, with 16,647 participants across all three divisions.[16] At the same time, 109 schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsored varsity men's volleyball, with only 23 of them in Division I; the number of men's varsity volleyball players was roughly one-tenth of women's participation (1,720 to 16,647).[17]
Men's volleyball experienced explosive growth at the Division III level in the 2010s and early 2020s. In the 2010 season (2009–10 school year), only 13 Division III schools competed within the NCAA, although many other D-III members competed outside the NCAA. The next season saw 56 teams play under D-III regulations, leading the NCAA to establish a separate Division III championship in 2012. In that season, 63 teams played D-III men's volleyball, with the number increasing to 113 by the 2022 season.[18]
In 2012, NCAA sanctioned college beach volleyball teams for women for the first time; 14 schools sponsored the sport, with slightly more than 200 participants.[16] The NCAA held its first beach volleyball championship in 2016, by which time nearly 50 schools were sponsoring the sport. In the 2022 season (2021–22 school year), 85 schools were sponsoring the sport.[18]
High school volleyball
High school volleyball is a fall sport for girls and spring sport for boys (except in a few states). Schools typically have a varsity and junior varsity team, and some schools also have freshman teams. Teams play in pre-season and season competition, generally followed by a post-season that includes a regional or sectional championship and often a state championship.
While each state governs its own high school volleyball competitions through their state athletic associations, most follow the lead of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) for the governance of the sport. Most volleyball rules from state to state are basically the same in the United States. However, because of the individual associations, some minor changes and variations may occur. For example, the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) may allow competition to be the best of five while the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) or the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC) may only allow competition to be the best of three. Today, however, most state associations are now using the same guidelines and are also using rally scoring, the best-of-five competition format, and allowing the libero to serve. In addition, most states, if not all, have adopted the plain, white polo shirt for officials as opposed to the black and white striped shirt worn in the past.[19]
Junior volleyball
Junior volleyball is played in the U.S. in many organizations such as churches, the YMCA and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), but the largest sponsoring organization is USA Volleyball, which oversees what is commonly referred to as "club volleyball" and hosts a Junior Olympic Championship each year.
In club volleyball, junior players develop their skills and knowledge of the game, usually with the purpose of playing for high school teams. Elite players also prepare for college volleyball. The club season typically lasts from the end of November until July, with the annual Junior Olympic Championships (JOs) taking place in late June, early July. Teams typically play tournaments throughout the season, establishing their ranking in the various regions and preparing for JOs or a season-ending tournament such as the Volleyball Festival, which claims to be the largest annual sporting event in the world.[20]
To qualify for JOs, teams must compete in JO Qualifiers, also referred to as National Qualifiers. There are nine qualifying tournaments across the country, to which teams travel to gain an invitation to JOs. Top teams attend these tournaments to earn their bids, and college coaches will attend to view the year's crop of players.
The club season, long considered a supplemental place for girls and boys to gain experience in preparation for their upcoming high-school seasons, is now an almost necessity to stay competitive in the local high schools.[21] It is also extremely important in the college recruitment process, as most college seasons coincide with state high school seasons, causing the college coaches to miss the entire season. This time is made up during the club season when college coaches are able to travel to various tournaments and meet with club coaches, watch club players, and recruit for their teams.
Today
Volleyball is one of the most popular girls' sports, and strong high school and club programs are found throughout the country.[2] According to a 2022 survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations, volleyball is the second highest sport for female participation at the high school level, trailing outdoor track and field by fewer than 3,000 participants.[22][23][24] One of the biggest events in high school-age sports is the annual Volleyball Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, (formerly in Reno, Nevada until 2009 and Sacramento, California until 2004), which draws as many as 10,000 players and 3,000 coaches for its five-day tournament.[25]
Boys' volleyball is popular on a regional basis, and by far the greatest number of boys' teams are in Southern California.[26] However, on the national stage, boys' volleyball remains far less popular than the girls' game at the high school level, as borne out by the following statistics from the aforementioned 2022 NFHS survey:[24]
For every boy currently competing in high school volleyball, nearly seven girls are involved. This is an improvement from 2012, when this ratio was more than 8:1.[27]
While all states as well as the District of Columbia sanction girls' volleyball, about half of the states do not sanction the boys' game (25 sanctioned the sport in 2021–22). Sixteen states reported participation of over 10,000 girls in high school volleyball. Of these states, four have no boys' high school volleyball—Texas (#1 in girls' participation), Minnesota (#8), Iowa (#11), and Washington (#15), though Minnesota will begin sanctioning boys' volleyball in 2024–25.[28] Two other high-participation states for girls, Michigan (#4) and Ohio (#6), reported fewer than 500 boys' participants (respectively 337 and 23).
Even those states that do sanction volleyball for both sexes typically have considerably fewer schools sponsoring the boys' game and thus fewer participants. Of the remaining 12 high-participation girls' volleyball states, only California, with over 45,000 girls and about 25,000 boys, had even half as many boys competing as girls. California has more than a third of all boys' players in the country.
In the four years from 2004 to 2008, high school participation in boys' volleyball rose by more than 15%, from about 42,000[29] to nearly 50,000.[1] Boys' volleyball has experienced noticeable growth in the 2010s and 2020s, coinciding with the relative boom in NCAA Division III men's volleyball; in 2021–22, roughly 66,500 boys were reported to be playing officially sanctioned high school volleyball.[24] This does not include boys playing at club level in states where high school competition is not officially sanctioned.
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