Continental Volleyball Conference
AssociationNCAA
FoundedApril 4, 2011
CommissionerJJ Nekoloff
Sports fielded
  • 1
DivisionDivision III
No. of teams9
HeadquartersMadison, New Jersey
Official websiteTheCVC.org

The Continental Volleyball Conference is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the NCAA's Division III.

History

On April 4, 2011, Gary Williams, Associate Athletic Director of Carthage College announced in Milwaukee the formation of the Continental Volleyball Conference. The league was established as a direct result of the launch of the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship in the next school year of 2011–12 where the inaugural tournament was held in April 2012.[1]

With the continued growth of Division III men's volleyball, the CVC announced in March 2014 that it would split into two leagues after the 2014 season.[2] The league's six Eastern members retained the CVC name and branding, while the six Midwestern members, plus two other Midwestern schools that had been announced as incoming CVC members, formed a new men's volleyball conference that was later unveiled as the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL).[3] When the split was announced, the eastern members also added Rutgers–Newark, a Division III school which had previously played at the National Collegiate (Division I/II) level as a "grandfathered" scholarship-granting program, for the 2015 season.[4]

The conference added the newly launched men's volleyball program of Alvernia as its eighth member for the 2017 season.[5]

Further membership changes were announced in 2016. First, on October 12, the Middle Atlantic Conferences, whose Commonwealth Conference was the all-sports home of charter CVC member Stevenson and new CVC member Alvernia, announced that its Middle Atlantic Conference would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season, leading to the departure of those schools from the CVC.[6] Within a week of this development, the CVC announced that Kean, Neumann, and Southern Virginia would become new members for the 2018 season, and that Thiel would leave after that same season.[7] Then, on November 21, Ramapo was announced as an incoming member for the 2018 season.[8]

Thiel did not initially announce its future men's volleyball affiliation, but would eventually be revealed as a new affiliate member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference effective with the 2018–19 school year.[9]

While Thiel left after the 2018 season, the CVC added three new members for the 2019 season, all of which launched new varsity programs at that time. First, in October 2017, Randolph–Macon College was announced as an incoming member.[10] Then, in December of that year, the CVC announced that Elizabethtown College and Immaculata University would also join.[11]

On July 1, 2018, the New Jersey Athletic Conference announced they would add men's volleyball as a sponsored sport. Kean and Rutgers–Newark maintain dual membership in the CVC and NJAC starting in 2018–19.[12] Ramapo College left the CVC and returned to the Skyline Conference; Rampo maintains dual affiliation for men's volleyball in the NJAC and Skyline.[13]

Inaugural member, Cairn departed the conference for the 2019–20 academic year after the university's all-sport conference, the Colonial States Athletic Conference, announced the addition of men's volleyball as a conference sport.[14]

Member schools

Current members

The league currently has 9 full members.

Note that because NCAA men's volleyball is a spring sport, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season of competition.

Institution Location Founded Joined Type Enrollment Nickname Primary
conference
Eastern Mennonite University Harrisonburg, Virginia 1917 2011 Private 1,589 Royals ODAC
Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania 1899 2018 Private 1,636 Blue Jays Landmark
Juniata College Huntingdon, Pennsylvania 1876 2011 Private 1,593 Eagles Landmark
Kean University Union, New Jersey 1855 2017 Private 16,633 Cougars NJAC[n 1]
Marymount University Arlington, Virginia 1950 2013 Private 3,633 Saints AEC
Randolph–Macon College Ashland, Virginia 1830 2018 Private 1,146 Yellow Jackets ODAC
Roanoke College Salem, Virginia 1842 2022 Private 1,920 Maroons ODAC
Rutgers University–Newark Newark, New Jersey 1936[n 2] 2014 Public 12,011 Scarlet Raiders NJAC[n 3]
Southern Virginia University Buena Vista, Virginia 1867 2017 Private 1,106 Knights USA South
  1. ^ Dual Member of CVC and NJAC for Men's Volleyball.
  2. ^ Rutgers University as a whole was founded in 1766. The founding date in this table reflects that of the University of Newark, which was merged into Rutgers in 1946 and became the current Rutgers–Newark campus.
  3. ^ Dual Member of CVC and NJAC for Men's Volleyball.

Former members

School names and nicknames reflect those in use during the final season each school was a CVC member.

Institution Location Joined Left Type Nickname Current
volleyball conference
Alvernia University Reading, Pennsylvania 2016 2017 Private Crusaders MAC
Cairn University[n 1] Langhorne, Pennsylvania 2011 2019 Private Crimson Eagles UEC
Carthage College Kenosha, Wisconsin 2011 2014 Private Redmen CCIW
Dominican University River Forest, Illinois 2013 2014 Private Stars NACC
Fontbonne University St. Louis, Missouri 2011 2014 Private Griffins MCVL
Immaculata University Malvern, Pennsylvania 2018 2022 Private Mighty Macs Independent
Lakeland College[b 1] Sheboygan, Wisconsin 2013 2014 Private Muskies NACC
College of Mount St. Joseph[b 2] Delhi Township, Ohio 2011[b 3] 2014 Private Lions MCVL
Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2011 2014 Private Raiders NACC
Neumann University Aston, Pennsylvania 2017 2020 Private Knights Independent
Ramapo College Mahwah, New Jersey 2017 2019 Public Roadrunners NJAC, Skyline[b 4]
Stevenson University Owings Mills, Maryland 2011 2017 Private Mustangs MAC
Thiel College Greenville, Pennsylvania 2011 2018 Private Tomcats AMCC
University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) Santa Cruz, California 2011 2013 Public Banana Slugs Independent
  1. ^ Known as Lakeland University since July 2016.
  2. ^ Known as Mount St. Joseph University since July 2014.
  3. ^ Mount St. Joseph fielded a team in the CVC's first season of 2012. It did not field a team in 2013, but returned for 2014.
  4. ^ Dual Member of Skyline NJAC for Men's Volleyball.

In addition to the above schools, two other institutions that were adding men's volleyball for the 2014–15 school year (2015 season)—Benedictine University in Illinois and Loras College in Iowa—had been announced as new CVC members. They never officially joined the CVC, instead uniting with the six Midwestern CVC schools in the MCVL.[3] (Benedictine left once its all-sports home of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference began sponsoring men's volleyball in 2017–18, while Loras left the MCVL in 2019 for single-sport membership in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, which added men's volleyball for 2019–20 and beyond.)

Membership timeline

As noted previously, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season of competition.

Roanoke CollegeRandolph–Macon CollegeImmaculata UniversityElizabethtown CollegeSouthern Virginia UniversityRamapo CollegeNeumann UniversityKean UniversityAlvernia UniversityRutgers University–NewarkMarymount UniversityThiel CollegeStevenson UniversityMilwaukee School of EngineeringMount St. Joseph UniversityLakeland UniversityFontbonne UniversityDominican University (Illinois)Carthage CollegeUniversity of California, Santa CruzJuniata CollegeEastern Mennonite UniversityCairn University


Conference Tournament Champions

Season Champion Record
2012 UC Santa Cruz 17-7
2013 Juniata 24-12
2014 Juniata 29-5
2015 Rutgers-Newark 22-10
2016 Stevenson 26-8
2017 Juniata 22-11
2018 Kean 34-3
2019 Southern Virginia 23-4[15]
2020 * *
2021 Southern Virginia 16-4
2022 Rutgers-Newark 23-4
2023 Juniata 30-3

League titles by school

School Championships Championship Years
Juniata
4
 2013, 2014, 2017, 2023
Rutgers-Newark
2
 2015, 2022
Southern Virginia
2
 2019, 2021
Kean
1
 2018
Stevenson
1
 2016
UC Santa Cruz
1
 2012

Notes

  1. ^ Cairn was known as Philadelphia Biblical University until July 2012.

References

  1. ^ History of the CVC
  2. ^ "CVC Announces Split As Teams Continue To Join" (Press release). Eastern Mennonite Royals. March 13, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Raiders' New Conference Has A Name" (Press release). MSOE Athletics. April 4, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  4. ^ "Transitioning Scarlet Raiders Join CVC" (Press release). Rutgers–Newark Athletics. March 13, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  5. ^ "CVC Welcomes Alvernia To League" (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. May 26, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  6. ^ "MAC to Sponsor Ice Hockey and Men's Volleyball Beginning 2017-18" (Press release). Middle Atlantic Conferences. October 12, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  7. ^ "CVC Set For Expansion In 2017" (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. October 18, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  8. ^ "Ramapo College To Become 12th Member of CVC" (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. November 21, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  9. ^ "Hiram, Thiel and Wittenberg to Join AMCC in Men's Volleyball" (Press release). Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. May 31, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  10. ^ "Randolph Macon To Join CVC" (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. October 14, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  11. ^ "On the 12th Day of Christmas, CVC Expands To 12 Teams" (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. December 20, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  12. ^ "NJAC to Sponsor Men's Tennis & Men's Volleyball in 2018-19" (Press release). New Jersey Athletic Conference. July 1, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  13. ^ "Men's Volleyball To Join The Skyline Conference". Rampo College Athletics. April 29, 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  14. ^ "CSAC to Add Men's Volleyball to Sport Sponsorship in 2019-20". Colonial States Athletic Conference. February 26, 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  15. ^ "CVC Record Book" (PDF) (Press release). Continental Volleyball Conference. p. 7. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
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