The seniors' division of the UAAP Season 71 volleyball tournaments opened December 6, 2008. Tournament host will be Far Eastern University. Tournament games will be at the Far Eastern University Gym and The Arena in San Juan.
The juniors' division tournaments were held on the first semester of the 2008-09 school year; the UE Pages and the UST Lady Tiger Cubs won all of their elimination round games in their respective divisions to clinch the championship outright.
In the men's tournament, the UST Growling Tigers also won all of their elimination round games but went through the usual the Final Four format; they beat Ateneo in three straight sets in the semifinals to formalize their entry to the Finals; they then swept the UP Fighting Maroons 2–0 in the best-of-3 Finals series without losing a set to have an immaculate 17–0 Season 71 record to successfully defend their championship.
In the women's tournament, the FEU Lady Tamaraws and La Salle Lady Archers emerged on top of the standings and beat their semifinals opponents to meet in the Finals. FEU overcame UST Tigresses which gave them their opening day loss, while La Salle beat the Adamson Lady Falcons in a rematch of their third-place playoff in the Shakey's V-League. FEU and La Salle split their elimination round games, with La Salle winning over FEU in the second round's last game to wrest the #1 seed away from the Lady Tamaraws who had held it all tournament long. After winning Game 1 in five sets, FEU lost the next two games in four sets to award La Salle their fifth UAAP women's volleyball championship.
With UST's 14–0 sweep of the tournament, they were supposed to receive at least an automatic Finals berth but instead will go through the usual Final Four phase with the release of the playoffs schedule.
Tiebreakers:
<section begin="Men's bracket" /><section end="Men's bracket" />
|- !colspan=10|UST advances to the Finals
|- !colspan=10|UP advances to the Finals
|- !colspan=10|UST wins series 2âÂÂ0
Tiebreakers:
<section begin="Women's bracket" /><section end="Women's bracket" />
|- !colspan=10|La Salle advances to the Finals
|- !colspan=10|FEU advances to the Finals
|- !colspan=10|La Salle wins series 2âÂÂ1
With UE sweeping the elimination round, they were declared automatic champions and the playoffs were scrapped.
Host team in boldface.
With UST sweeping the elimination round, they were declared automatic champions and the playoffs were scrapped.
Host team in boldface.