I'm a senior and signed my letter of intent on November 9th. It was the most exciting day in my life. I'll give you a little insight into how I made my decision. I had full ride offers from the likes of Notre Dame, Kansas State, Alabama, Iowa and Louisville. The university I chose wasn't even on my radar at first. I made lots of unofficial visits the first part of my junior year. I fell in love with the university I chose. I knew right away this is the place for me.
My advice is this...fill out all those forms and send them in. Make a resume of your volleyball and high school accomplishments. Make a list of who you want to send it to and do it. Make sure you know who to send it to..ie coach's name. If a coach wants to talk to you, he will give that message to the club coach. College coaches cannot make any kind of contact with you but you can call them all you want.
Except for that general questionaire letter, D1 schools cannot contact you until Sept. 1 of your junior year. If you are a sought after player, look out. My email box and our snail mail box was full daily at least for 3 months. They can email you all they want and if they want you, they will email you several times a week. But, they cannot call you on the phone.
I think they can talk to you July 1 after your junior year off campus, but only after a tourney is over and you are released by your club coach.
You can make as many unofficial visits as you wish (your buck) and this is really when you can examine things. Watch practices, watch the coaches during a match and how the players react. Ask as many questions as you can think of...academic support, how many days you might have to miss classes (you're a student first) because of volleyball, dorm life, healthcare, etc.
I verbally committed in Dec of my junior year and never looked back. I'll be playing for a team that was in the Elite Eight NCAA Tourney this year. I am so excited.
Good luck to all of you who are just starting the process.