By Noah Schuessler
Early in the third set of the hotly contested men’s volleyball quarterfinal matchup between Springfield College and SUNY New Paltz last Saturday night, there was a noticeable shift in energy, a shift that was pushed ahead by the rowdiness of the Springfield fans in attendance. One by one, Springfield’s athletic teams walked into the gym, fully decked out in their gear. Marching in with shoulder pads and helmets on and infectious energy came the football team, screaming and cheering their hearts out. Soon after, wrestling strutted in with singlets on, flexing for the increasingly excited crowd, and finally, women’s lacrosse grabbed lacrosse sticks and immediately paraded them all throughout the air.
As the teams all congregated into the left corner of the stands, the volume in Blake Arena was triple the noise than it was in just the previous minute. A new feeling had entered the air, a feeling of joy and pride for a team and for a school. As if the crowd couldn’t get any rowdier, an early timeout in the fourth set by New Paltz gave the DJ the opportunity to drive the crowd into a frenzy. Seconds later, the highly vibrational beat to ‘Pump It Up’ by Endor blasted through the speakers and had the crowd jumping as if there was no tomorrow.
As the final ball landed and the roars of a packed Blake Arena erupted, Springfield College had booked its place in the Final Four for the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Tournament. In front of a full crowd with fans jumping up and down in support of the volleyball team, one thing was evident, this school and its community share a deep passion for a sport that was invented not too far from Blake Arena.
Now in mere hours, Springfield College is welcoming some of the best talent the country has to offer as Blake Arena plays host for both the semifinals and championship games on April 23 and 25. Traditionally, for a host site, it’s a time to celebrate welcoming the nation’s best teams, but for Springfield, its meaning goes far deeper.
With the stage now set tonight for an unforgettable final four weekend, the Tigers of Wittenberg, the Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran, the Firebirds of Carthage and the Pride of Springfield all will make their claim to see who can hoist the national championship trophy come Saturday evening. Welcome to Springfield College. Welcome to the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Final Four.
Roots That Trace Back to Alden Street
To understand what volleyball means within the Springfield community, one must travel far back in time, not just a few years, not just a few decades, but rather all the way back to 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, a city less than eight miles from Springfield’s campus.
William G. Morgan wanted to find a new game to play that differed from basketball, another sport that was invented on Springfield’s campus just four years prior. Through creative thinking, he came up with mintonette, volleyball’s original name. Morgan officially showcased his new sport soon after at a YMCA event on the campus of Springfield College.
Some 13 decades later, Morgan’s legacy thrives every February at Springfield as some of the nation’s finest teams travel to Alden Street for the annual Morgan Classic, a short, in-season tournament that helps platform the sport for the whole community, with multiple ranked teams routinely making appearances.
A sport that started with humble beginnings transformed into a globally recognized one that first debuted in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, back in 1964, has now progressed to over 800 million participants today. However, a lot has changed since the early days of the sport, particularly in the U.S.
Surging Popularity in the US Among Youth
Support for the growth of volleyball at the youth level has shown rapid growth in a very short span of time. Following the success of the Olympic teams, youth participation for girls’ volleyball has risen to an all-time high, with over 470,000 high school players as recently as 2023, according to the AP. For boys, even more dramatic numbers present themselves. An AVCA report shows that over a six-year period, high school boys’ volleyball saw participation rates upwards of 51 percent, compared to the next highest, which was wrestling, which sat at 23 percent.
These numbers don’t fully paint the picture of the expanded growth among high school boys’ volleyball. As of April 2026, 25 states have boys’ volleyball as a sanctioned sport, with an additional three having a partially sanctioned status. The efforts to grow the game don’t stop there, because in each of the remaining states, there are active efforts to make boys’ volleyball a sanctioned sport (recognized by a state high school athletic association).
The success of propelling the game forward is moving at a flash-like speed across the country with no signs of slowing down. Spread throughout this colossal nation, in YMCA’s and local town gyms, you will find a new influx of volleyball players, with many developing a newfound love for a sport they never would have tried before.
“For a long time, volleyball was kind of just like, at least it seemed that it was a sport that people filtered into when they didn’t make other sports,” said Springfield graduate assistant coach Evan Troncoso. “And we’re very fortunate that some of our athletes at the highest level are incredible, and they’ve been playing volleyball for a long time. The sport is evolving, and we’ll be getting better athletes and more seasoned volleyball players in those positions of ability to be playing the sport for a long time.”
Growth At the Collegiate Level
With more attention directed towards high-profile matches across the main ESPN networks, collegiate volleyball has seen record viewership year-after-year. Volleyball’s rapid momentum can’t just be looked at by viewership, but also by attendance. No better place could be found than in the heart of Lincoln, Nebraska, where on the warm evening of August 30, 2023, Nebraska women’s volleyball broke the record for the highest attended women’s sporting event of all time with a whopping 92,003 rowdy fans inside Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Nebraska.
This moment was a defining moment for the sport, a true signal that volleyball had broken through. To this day, that record still stands as the highest attended women’s sporting event ever, and it’s helped propel other schools to invest more in their volleyball programs.
Where women’s college volleyball saw a very public rise to fame, the men’s side has been a bit more hidden. There aren’t many televised men’s volleyball matches across the main ESPN networks, and there aren’t any major professional leagues in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that the growth isn’t there. The clearest example is the increase in the number of schools that have added men’s volleyball to their athletic departments, not just in Division I, but in Division III as well.
Coach Jamie Peterson of Wittenberg, the team on a Cinderella run in this tournament, also offered some insight as to how volleyball culture in the U.S. is unique because it’s one of the few sports where most of the attention is directed at the women’s game as opposed to the men’s.
“In most sports, the women’s side is the side that trails in visibility and success, but I think it’s different for volleyball, especially the last few years in the United States,” Peterson said. “I think women’s volleyball has absolutely skyrocketed, and it’s left the men’s side in the dust a little bit, so it’s a little bit backwards. I [still] think that there is a lane for it to succeed.”
With the new explosion of fans across the country, this led to the creation of two domestic professional leagues in the U.S. for women’s volleyball, something that many only dreamed about just a few years ago. While women’s volleyball has the record viewership and attendance records, where does that leave the men’s side? The solution to this issue is as clear as day: showcase it, and the people will come.
Since 2020, the number of schools sponsoring men’s volleyball went from 45 schools to a whopping 65 in Division I. They, however, were beaten by the monumental growth at the Division III level, where the number of teams has exploded from just barely over 50 teams to 132 teams in less than 15 years.
“I think that growing up in California, it seemed that for a long time, California was a dominant power in boys volleyball, specifically, but now it seems like the talent has been more spread and the culture has really grown outside of California. Florida has got some incredible volleyball now, and the Midwest is really good at volleyball. So these hotbeds of volleyball are really growing, and that’s obviously really exciting as well,” said Troncoso.
Perhaps one of the more odd hotbeds of volleyball has taken shape right here in Western Massachusetts, where the success and legacy of Springfield College has transformed the sport at the collegiate level.
In 1970, Springfield officially founded a men’s volleyball team, one of the earliest schools in the country to do so. It took a few tries, but in 1997, it had won its first national title, though D-III men’s volleyball was not yet an NCAA sanctioned sport. Two years later, current head coach Charlie Sullivan had begun his time coaching the men’s team, and following that was a string of impressive performances that included five national championships before the sport officially became NCAA sanctioned in 2012.
Men’s volleyball had expanded dramatically, finally crossing the 50-team threshold required by the NCAA to become sanctioned. That didn’t stop the success of Springfield, as the Pride went on to win an additional five championships from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018. Over the span of 21 years from 1997 to 2018, Springfield had won 11 of those championships. The bar had been set, and as of late it has been matched by other teams. With the sport continuing to grow at such a rapid rate, many other schools have won their first national championships in the time since Springfield last won.
With more parity in the sport, it truly became one of the must-see events on the NCAA calendar. Additionally, men’s volleyball kicks off the spring sports championships, as it is always the first sport to hold their National Championship.
In the time since Springfield last won, the Pride have made it to the national championship match twice, in 2022 and in 2025, ultimately falling shy in both games. However, a new opportunity arises for a record-setting 12th national title as Springfield plays host this year. But times are different, and the path to win a national championship is much harder than before, not that it was ever easy in the first place.
As Springfield’s campus braces for an electric Final Four, showcasing some of the best volleyball talent in the country, it’s important to remember the sport’s roots, not just to the campus, but to the entire Springfield community. When William Morgan invented this amazing sport, he might’ve never envisioned the kind of success it would have, not just in his community but across the entire country. Then again, maybe he had envisioned that type of success all along.
Whatever it may be, the historic rise to success volleyball has had in the last decade at every level shows that the future is quite bright.
Photo by Emma Bynes/The Student