From it's inception the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) has strived to be one of the premier men's volleyball conferences in NCAA Division III. What began as a conference that stretched from coast to coast, uniting geographically separate institutions, has now shifted eastward as the sport of men's volleyball has grown. The CVC still remains steadfast in their goal of offering a high-quality experience for student-athletes looking to play men's volleyball at the NCAA Division III level while remaining focused on academic excellence.
The CVC was formed on April 4, 2011, when the conference's first commissioner, Gary Williams, announced an original charter membership that consisted of Carthage College (Kenosha, Wis.), Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, Va.), Fontbonne University (St. Louis, Mo.) Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pa.), Milwaukee School of Engineering (Milwaukee, Wis.), the College of Mount Saint Joseph (Cincinnati, Ohio), Philadelphia Biblical University (Langhorne, Pa.) now Cairn University, Stevenson University (Stevenson, Md.), Thiel College (Greenville, Pa.) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, Calif.).
In the summer of 2013, the CVC welcomed in three new members in Dominican University (River Forest, Ill.), Lakeland College (Sheboygan, Wis.) and Marymount University (Arlington, Va.) while UC-Santa Cruz dropped affiliation.
In 2015, with men's volleyball continuously growing throughout the country, CVC membership underwent numerous changes. After two seasons of separate divisions the CVC split; with several members remaining in the CVC and the remaining members, which were based in the Midwest, splintering off to form a new league; the Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League.
No longer needing to unite schools across the country, newly appointed CVC commissioner Graeme Millar, focused the league's attention on a more geographically centered conference. In 2015 the CVC added Rutgers University-Newark (Newark, N.J.) and went back to a one division conference. The league approved membership for Alvernia University (Reading, Penn.) in the spring of 2016, with play in the league beginning in the 2017 season. In the fall of 2016 Kean University (Union, N.J.), Neumann University (Aston, Penn.), Ramapo College (Mahwah, N.J.), and Southern Virginia University (Buena Vista, Va.) all received approval to join the conference starting in the 2018 season.
In the spring of 2018, J.J. Nekoloff joined the league as its Commissioner. Founding member Thiel College departed after the 2018 season while Elizabethtown College, Immaculata University, and Randolph Macon College were accepted as conference members and joined league play for the 2019 season. Prior to the 2022-23 campaign, new program Roanoke College joined the CVC while Immaculata departed the conference.
The CVC currently sits as a nine-member league with Eastern Mennonite University, Elizabethtown College, Juniata College, Kean University, Marymount University, Randolph-Macon College, Roanoke College, Rutgers University-Newark, and Southern Virginia University comprising its membership.