Chris Tamas enters his ninth season as head coach of the Fighting Illini volleyball program in 2025 after being named to the position in February 2017. Tamas (pronounced Thomas) is the eighth head coach in Illinois history.

Across his first eight seasons at the helm of the program, Tamas has made an impact on Illinois volleyball and owns an overall record of 149-94 (.613), including a 90-68 (.560) mark in the nation’s toughest volleyball league, the Big Ten Conference. He also has guided the Fighting Illini to five NCAA Tournament appearances, including three NCAA Regional appearances and a trip to the Final Four in 2018, while he has led the Orange and Blue to 10+ conference wins in seven of his eight seasons thus far. 

The 2024 campaign marked the fifth NCAA Tournament appearance under Tamas' leadership. The Orange and Blue posted an 18-13 overall mark with a 10-10 conference record in the new 18-team Big Ten. Under Tamas' guidance, Raina Terry was named to the AVCA All-American Third Team. The outside hitter recorded an amazing final season with the Fighting Illini, closing out her career with 2,138 kills, 2,522.0 points, and 220 aces; all three marks rank first in the Illinois volleyball record book.

During the 2022 season, Tamas led the Fighting Illini to a 15-15 overall record and a 10-10 tally against Big Ten opponents. Junior outside hitter Terry was named a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team and also received AVCA All-Region honors. Brooke Mosher was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team that season as well. Illinois improved to 16-14 in 2023 with an 11-9 Big Ten mark. Terry, once again, received All-Big Ten First Team honors and garnered AVCA All-Region accolades for a second-straight year.

Tamas earned his 100th career win – all of which came at the helm of the Illini program – after leading Illinois to its third trip to the Round of 16 in five seasons after back-to-back wins to open the 2021 NCAA tournament, including a four-set win over 2020-21 national champion and No. 7 seed Kentucky in Lexington. The Illini concluded the 2021 season ranked No. 16 in the AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll with a 22-12 overall record and finished seventh with a 12-8 mark in the Big Ten Conference.  

Illinois experienced one of its most successful seasons ever in 2018 under Tamas, who was named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The Illini made the program’s fourth-ever appearance in the NCAA National Semifinals as the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament – riding a 17-match win streak into the Final Four – and ended the season ranked No. 3 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The team registered a 32-4 overall record and finished in second place in the Big Ten Conference with a 17-3 mark, with the 32 victories ranking tied for fourth-most wins in school history.

Under Tamas' leadership, the Illini have collected a number of individual honors, highlighted by AVCA All-America First-Team selections in Jordyn Poulter and Jacqueline Quade – the first time in program history that Illinois has had multiple first-team honors in a season – as well as a Third Team selection in Ali Bastianelli. Poulter and Bastianelli, who also garnered All-America Third Team honors in 2017, were also named Senior CLASS Award finalists and CoSIDA Academic All-District honorees. The trio also collected unanimous All-Big Ten First Team accolades, with junior Ashlyn Fleming named to the Second Team and Poulter garnering the Illini’s first-ever Big Ten Conference Co-Setter of the Year honor.

In his first season at Illinois – and his first-ever campaign as an NCAA Division I head coach – Tamas led the Illini back to the NCAA Regionals for the program’s 17th Round of 16 appearance in its history. The Illini finished the 2017 season with a 23-11 overall record, including a fifth-place showing in the Big Ten Conference with a 12-8 mark as well as a final ranking of No. 17 in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Tamas came to Illinois following many years learning from some of the game's great coaches, including John Cook at Nebraska and former U.S. National Team coaches Hugh McCutcheon and Ron Larsen. In all, Tamas will be entering his 17th year of collegiate coaching in the Fall of 2025, including two years at Nebraska, two years at Cal Poly, two years at Minnesota, and two years at UC-Riverside.

Tamas is a 2003 graduate of the University of the Pacific with a degree in sports sciences. He was a four-year starter for the Tigers and a unanimous AVCA All-American First Team selection and team MVP during his 2003 senior season. In four years with the U.S. Men's National Team (1999, 2003, 2005-06), Tamas made 34 appearances, and, in 1999, helped the squad to a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Havana, Cuba. As national team captain in 2003, Tamas helped lead the United State to a bronze medal at the World University Games in Daegu, South Korea.

A training camp invitee for the U.S. squad that eventually captured the 2008 Olympic gold medal, Tamas also helped U.S. teams to silver at the 2005 World Grand Champions Cup in Japan and, as a setter, to a gold at the 2006 NORCECA Championships in Mexicali, Mexico.

As a professional, Tamas competed for six years overseas with clubs Protect Eye Orion (Netherlands), Antigos Alunos (Portugal), Real Grupo (Spain), Erdemir (Turkey), Dionysos (Cyprus) and Isku (Finland). In Finland and Cyprus, Tamas helped his clubs to national cup championships.

A native of Santa Barbara, California, Tamas and his wife, Jennifer (Joines) Tamas, have three children, Jimmy, Josephine, and Carly. Along with serving as the Illinois assistant coach, Jennifer was also a volunteer assistant at both Nebraska and Cal Poly. She was a four-time All-American middle blocker at Pacific (2000-03) and silver medalist with the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics while playing professionally for eight years in Japan, Italy, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Puerto Rico. She was the U.S. Women's National Team captain for four years.

*Conference-only, shortened schedule held in Spring 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

Updated May 2025