Bureau Valley Storm Volleyball: 2026 Schedule, Results and Roster
Bureau Valley Storm · Manlius, Illinois
Latest result: finished third at the Rock Falls Invitational on September 5. Now 5-4. Next: at St. Bede, Tuesday September 8, 7:00.
2026: 5-4 · Coach: Saige Barnett · 2025: 15-17, fourth in the Lincoln Trail
A team that hosted last year’s regional, a veteran roster, and the newest member of the conference.
2026 so far
- Aug 24 — won at Newman Central Catholic, 2-1
- Aug 25 — lost to Erie-Prophetstown, 1-2
- Aug 27 — beat Mercer County, 2-1
Three matches, all decided in three sets. Shaw Local previewed a veteran roster expecting to compete at a higher level than last season’s.
Sept 1 — lost to Morrison 0-2 at home. Sept 3 — beat Amboy 2-0 away.
Sept 5 — third at the Rock Falls Invitational. Lost 1-2 to LaSalle-Peru, beat Princeton in pool play, beat Newman Central Catholic 2-1, lost 1-2 to Riverdale, then beat Newman again in the third-place match. That final score was not reported. The busiest week of any area side.
They hosted the regional the champions won
Bureau Valley went 15-17 overall and 8-4 in conference, fourth of twelve, and hosted the Class 1A regional in October.
They beat Stark County 25-13, 25-20 on October 28. The following night they took ROWVA/Williamsfield — the eventual conference champions, on a 21-match unbeaten run — to three sets before losing 25-20, 23-25, 25-21.
That was the Cougars’ school-record 29th win, and Bureau Valley made them earn it.
ROWVA went on to win the regional final on Bureau Valley’s own floor.
September schedule
| Date | Opponent | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 1 | Morrison | Home |
| Sept 3 | at Amboy | Away |
| Sept 5 | Rock Falls Invite | Away |
| Sept 8 | at St. Bede | Away |
| Sept 9 | at Rock Falls | Away |
| Sept 10 | Kewanee | Home |
| Sept 14 | Putnam County | Home |
| Sept 16 | at Knoxville † | Away |
| Sept 19 | Pearl City Tournament | Away |
| Sept 24 | at Mendota | Away |
| Sept 28 | Galva † | Home |
| Sept 29 | at Abingdon-Avon † | Away |
| Sept 30 | at Ridgewood † | Away |
† Lincoln Trail Conference.
September 16 at Knoxville is the pick of the month across the whole conference — two teams that opened 2-1, both mid-table last season, both looking to move up.
New to the conference
Bureau Valley joined the Lincoln Trail in 2024, arriving from the Three Rivers Athletic Conference as Mercer County went the other way.
It is the largest school in the league by enrollment at 295 — more than three times the size of Annawan, and considerably larger than the two programmes that finished above it last season.
The school in the village of 298
The high school is in Manlius, population 298. The district it serves covers ten villages — Bradford, Buda, Harmon, Manlius, New Bedford, Normandy, Sheffield, Thomas, Walnut and Wyanet — across four counties and three telephone area codes.
That geography explains the enrollment. It also explains why Bureau Valley teams travel further to their own home games than most.
The school won an undefeated Class 3A football state championship in 2005 and, in January that same year, became the first high school in Illinois to build and operate a full-sized wind turbine. More on the Storm →
A gap we would like filled
Bureau Valley’s roster is not published anywhere we can find — MaxPreps shows zero players listed for 2026.
If you can send us a roster, we will publish it and credit you. Assistants Abby Shipp and Dan DeVenney work with Barnett.
The postseason
State semifinals Friday, November 13, finals Saturday, November 14, at CEFCU Arena in Normal.
October 2026 schedule
| Date | Opponent | Site | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, Oct 5 | Stark County | Home | 7:00 p.m. |
| Tue, Oct 6 | at Wethersfield | Away | 7:00 p.m. |
| Thu, Oct 8 | at United | Away | 7:00 p.m. |
| Wed, Oct 14 | West Central | Home | 7:00 p.m. |
| Mon, Oct 19 | at Princeville | Away | 7:00 p.m. |
| Wed, Oct 21 | ROWVA/Williamsfield | Home | 7:00 p.m. |
| Thu, Oct 22 | Riverdale | Home | 7:00 p.m. |
A decade that produced eight regionals
The IHSA’s all-time summary for Bureau Valley reads 338-194-4 — a .634 winning percentage across 17 recorded seasons beginning in 1995-96. That is the strongest mark of any program in this coverage area outside Wethersfield.
One caveat has to come first, because without it the number misleads. The IHSA summary’s final entry is 2018-19, and that row carries no win-loss total at all. Nothing has been filed for 2019-20 through 2025-26. These summaries depend on schools submitting their results, and Bureau Valley’s submissions lapsed seven years ago. The figure is a genuine IHSA number, but it is a snapshot that stops in 2019, not a true all-time record.
What it does capture is a remarkable run. The Storm won eight regional championships — 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2018-19. Seven of those eight fell inside a nine-year window, including four straight to open the 2000s and three consecutive from 2004 through 2007. Very few small schools in Illinois have stacked regional plaques like that.
Two seasons went further still. Bureau Valley added sectional championships in 2001-02 and 2005-06. The 2005-06 team is the one worth knowing: 32-5 under Vicki Litherland, a regional title, a sectional title, a super-sectional win and a berth in the Class A state finals. The IHSA’s place column for that team is blank, so where the Storm actually finished in Normal is something we have not been able to establish from the record. If you played on that team, coached it, or sat in the stands, we would like to hear from you.
The consolidation lineage carries hardware too. Predecessor school Walnut holds a Class A regional championship from 1992-93. Buda, Manlius, Sheffield and Wyanet have no volleyball records on file.
Who is coaching in 2026
MaxPreps lists Saige Barnett as head coach for the 2026 season, with Dan DeVenney and Abby Shipp assisting. The IHSA’s last coach of record is Caitlyn DeMay in 2018-19 — a reflection of how long the filing has gone unupdated rather than any disagreement about who runs the program today.
What we have not been able to confirm
- Bureau Valley’s win-loss record in any season since 2019. No public source we have found reports it completely.
- Where the 2005-06 team finished at the Class A state finals.
- The 2026 roster, which has not been posted publicly.
If you have any of this — coach, parent, player, scorekeeper — send it and we will publish it with credit.
Send us results
Volleyball gets a fraction of the coverage football does around here, and almost none of these matches are written up anywhere. If you have a result, a stat line or a photo, send it in — we post them as they come and correct errors the same day.
Records from MaxPreps schedule pages, cross-checked where the site’s own pages disagree. Postseason results via the Peoria Journal Star. All area volleyball standings →
