Published for Chicago Frost fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 24, 2026
🏐 Chicago Frost Fans — The Cold Front Is Here!
Two pro setters, one ice-blue identity, and a Tier 1 debut on the calendar. Chicago’s quietest VLA club took its colors to Las Vegas — and now the cold front moves up a division. Wear the ice blue and ride with the Frost.
The Club
The Chicago Frost are one of three separate Chicago women’s clubs in the Volleyball League of America (VLA) — alongside the Chicago Sweedies and Chicago Southside XP, each entirely its own club. The Frost play in the league’s North Division, and their documented road runs through Madison, Milwaukee and Las Vegas. The look is unmistakable and pure Chicago winter: a sleeveless ice-blue jersey fading to white, the word FROST spelled across the chest with a snowflake standing in for the O, pale-blue snowflakes down the side panels — and a back that carries no surname at all, just the navy snowflake logo above a huge white number with a navy outline, a row of four red Chicago stars and the sponsor band below. No home venue has ever been published, and the club keeps a low profile — but the volleyball is serious: a roster carrying two professional setters. In 2026 the women played the league’s single Women’s division — and earned a place in its first Tier 1 picture for January 2027. Searching for a Chicago Frost jersey, the Frost roster or the Frost schedule? Start here.
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Amanda Peterson’s ice-blue Frost home jersey look — fan-inspired apparel made for Chicago fans.
Last Season (2026): The Documented Trail — Milwaukee, the North Cup and Vegas
One honest note before the dates: neither the club nor the league publishes Frost results, so this guide tells the 2026 story the way the record actually tells it — through documented appearances, never invented scores. The year opened under big-arena lights: league footage dated February 20, 2026 shows the Frost in the blue-and-white kit at the Milwaukee Wave arena. In March came the VLA North Cup: the league’s own highlight reel is captioned “Chicago Frost 2026 VLA North Cup,” and the club marked it with a photo carousel on March 10, 2026 — the close-ups that document the nameless Frost back. Then, in May, the big trip: the VLA Cup at the Las Vegas Convention Center, May 9–11, 2026. The club’s own MATCHDAY graphic confirmed the entry, and the published May 9 fixture list put Frost on Court 14 against Sun City IX — the 2025 VLA women’s champions — and against the Adirondack Avalanche. No results from Las Vegas were ever published, and none are claimed here. Behind it sits the weekend that started the public story: on March 28, 2025, the club posted its ten-player numbered roster for the North Cup in Madison — “cold front comin’ to Madison this weekend” — and the league’s 2025 North Division Cup reel shows the #3 and #2 shirts spiking in Frost colors. A quiet club, a documented trail — and a season ending with the league writing Frost into its first Tier 1 picture.
Best Players Right Now (The Published Roster)
One honest note before the names: the numbers below come from the club’s official VLA North Cup roster graphic, published March 28, 2025 — the only numbered roster the Frost have ever released.
Amanda Peterson, Setter (#75) — The roster’s veteran anchor, and the one Frost player whose membership is documented by a primary source: The Volleyball Institute’s bio states that she “has also set for the VLA semi-professional team Chicago Frost.” Four years setting at Ohio State, an NCAA Tournament every year, two Sweet Sixteens, the captain’s role as a senior — then professional seasons in Austria, Slovenia, Greece and the US, plus a Division I assistant-coaching stint at Ohio University. The #75 is the most experienced shirt in the North Division.
Erica Handley, Setter (#2) — A second professional setter: a Minnesota graduate whose career runs through Athletes Unlimited, a Finnish Cup win in 2019, a Czech Cup win in 2020 with VK UP Olomouc, and pro stops in Poland and France. Her #2 shirt is the lead image of the club’s March 2026 carousel — the very back close-up that documents the Frost kit.
Lizzy Wexter (#7) — The face of the roster announcement itself: Wexter is the pictured athlete on the club’s official roster graphic, wearing the full ice-blue kit and the #7, dark ponytail and the tattoo on her left forearm. No position has ever been published for her, so none is printed here.
Kelly Wolinetz (#3) — Her #3 shirt is featured spiking in the league’s 2025 North Division Cup Frost highlight reel — the number doing the talking.
Maggie Gibson (#5) — On the ten-player published roster that carried the Frost into Madison.
Alex Johnson (#8) — Another of the ten names on the official roster graphic — part of the core the cold front was built from.
Becky Bartnicki (#9) — One of the ten shirts in the only numbered set the club has released.
Cami Jersonsky (#11) — Named on the roster graphic alongside the two pro setters — double-digit depth for the North Division side.
Paige Kaufman (#21) — Part of the published ten the club chose to announce itself with.
Melissa Mazur (#22) — The tenth name on the March 2025 roster graphic, completing the only published lineup in Frost history.
Star Spotlight: Stories You Should Know
The captain wearing 75. Semi-pro rosters are usually built on promise. The top of this one is built on proof: four NCAA Tournaments and two Sweet Sixteens as Ohio State’s setter, the captain’s role as a senior, then professional seasons in Austria, Slovenia, Greece and back home in the US. When The Volleyball Institute lists its trainers, it notes she has also set for Chicago Frost. That is the player running the Frost offense in the #75 — a captain’s career, still going, in ice blue.
Two setters, one statement. Most clubs at this level are lucky to roster one professional setter. The Frost’s published roster carries two: Peterson, and Erica Handley — a Minnesota graduate with Athletes Unlimited on her record and cup titles in Finland and the Czech Republic. It is the clearest signal of what this quiet club actually is: not a social team with a nice logo, but a program built around elite setting.
The back with no name. Every Frost jersey tells you where it is from before a single point is played — and it never tells you who is wearing it. Photo-confirmed from the club’s own March 2026 carousel: the back of the ice-blue shirt carries the navy FROST snowflake logo, a huge white number outlined in navy, four red Chicago stars in a row, and the sponsor band underneath. No surname, anywhere. In a league of personal brands, the Frost back is all city and number.
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Handley’s ice-blue #2 — the back the club’s own carousel put on display.
This Season (2027): The Tier 1 Debut
The next chapter is a step up in class. In January 2027 the VLA launches its Women’s Tier 1 — a brand-new top division — and “Frost” was among the names on the league’s October 2026 announcement graphic: Chicago’s ice-blue club is slated for the inaugural Tier 1 field. Every women’s team began as Tier 2 stock under the league’s promotion system — which makes the Frost’s place in the first Tier 1 picture a genuine badge of progress for a club that only published its first roster in March 2025. And the season ends at home: the 2027 VLA Championships are scheduled for Memorial Day weekend in Chicago, partnered with the USA Volleyball Adult Nationals. No 2027 roster, fixture list or tryout news had been published yet, so January is a date to circle rather than a schedule to print. The cold front earned its promotion quietly. Tier 1 is where it gets loud.
Mark Your Calendar: The Road Ahead
Circle the dates ahead, Frost fans — the Tier 1 winter comes first — then relive the documented stops that carried Chicago’s quietest club up a division:
- January 2027 — Women’s Tier 1 opens: The VLA’s new top division debuts league-wide, with Frost named in the inaugural field. Exact fixture dates are still to be announced.
- Memorial Day weekend, May 2027 — VLA Championships, Chicago, IL: The season ends in the Frost’s home city, alongside the USA Volleyball Adult Nationals.
- Relive it — May 9, 2026, the VLA Cup in Las Vegas: Documented Frost fixtures against Sun City IX and the Adirondack Avalanche at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The results were never published — the fixtures alone made the statement.
- Relive it — February 20, 2026, the Milwaukee arena match: League footage of the Frost in the blue-and-white kit at the Milwaukee Wave arena — big-arena volleyball, ninety minutes up I-94.
- Relive it — March 28, 2025, the roster reveal in Madison: The North Cup weekend where the club published its ten-player numbered roster under one perfect caption: “cold front comin’ to Madison.”
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Chicago Sweedies & Chicago Southside XP — the city war. Chicago ices three separate women’s VLA clubs, and only one of them gets to own the city. The Frost, the Sweedies and Southside XP share a league list, a flag and a city’s bragging rights — and Southside XP runs the same northern and central event circuit the Frost plays. No head-to-head results between the three are published anywhere, so this war is structural for now: the first Chicago club to a Tier 1 statement win owns the winter.
2. Milwaukee Mayhem — the I-94 rivalry. The nearest northern peer, an hour and a half up the interstate. The Frost’s documented matchday at the Milwaukee Wave arena on February 20, 2026 put the ice-blue inside Mayhem’s home market, and Mayhem’s own circuit — North Cup weekends, Madtown events — overlaps the Frost’s. No Frost–Mayhem score has ever been published; the rivalry is geographic, recurring, and waiting for its first documented chapter.
3. Madison Embers — the North Cup hosts. The Frost announced themselves in Embers country: the March 2025 North Cup in Madison, at Madtown Volleyball in Sun Prairie, is where the “cold front comin’” roster dropped. Every North Cup run since has gone through the northern circuit’s host club.
4. Sun City IX & Adirondack Avalanche — the Vegas measuring sticks. The Frost’s documented May 9, 2026 VLA Cup fixtures paired them with the league’s standard-bearers: Sun City IX, the 2025 VLA women’s champions, and the Adirondack Avalanche. The scores were never published — but a young club measures itself by the names on its fixture list, and those two names tell you exactly where the Frost were aiming.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When do the Chicago Frost play next?
The VLA’s Women’s Tier 1 opens in January 2027, and Frost is one of the teams named in the league’s inaugural Tier 1 announcement. No Frost fixture dates have been published yet — and the season closes with the 2027 VLA Championships on Memorial Day weekend in Chicago.
Where are the Chicago Frost based?
The Frost are a women’s Volleyball League of America team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the league’s North Division. No home venue is published; the club’s documented appearances come at regional events in Madison, Milwaukee and Las Vegas.
Who are the Chicago Frost’s star players?
Setter Amanda Peterson (#75), an Ohio State captain and European professional; fellow pro setter Erica Handley (#2); and Lizzy Wexter (#7), the pictured cover athlete of the club’s official roster graphic. All three numbers come from the club’s published March 2025 North Cup roster.
Where can I buy Chicago Frost fan gear?
Toxlay Sports offers fan-inspired apparel for Frost supporters — fan-designed gear made for real fans. Note that fan-inspired apparel is not official VLA licensed merchandise.
Sources: Volleyball League of America (usavla.com), the Chicago Frost’s official club channels and The Volleyball Institute — schedules and rosters checked October 2026.
Stay cold, Chicago — the cold front’s Tier 1 winter starts in January.
