This study evaluated the effects of Skill Teaching and Tactical approaches on skill development, game play, knowledge, and self-efficacy for 169 high- and low-skilled players of 182 beginning university Volleyball students. Three instructors each taught one Tactical and one Skill Teaching class two days a week for 16 weeks. A random coefficients growth curve model revealed significant improvement on skills tests, knowledge, self-efficacy, contacts per serve in 6-on-6 games, the percentage of successful passes and sets, and the percentage of legal sets and serves for both groups. Skill Teaching students ended 6.5 points higher on serve self-efficacy. Low-skilled students improved more on the serve skills test, self-efficacy, and the percentage of legal sets and successful passes. High skilled students improved more on the spike skills test and legal and successful spikes per serve. Neither model was superior. (Contains 4 tables.)