Christopher Tamas is currently the head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini Volleyball team. Under Tamas's leadership, the Illini 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. 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. 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 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 volunteer 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.