Reports indicate that about half of the individuals who begin participating in sport activities drop out within a short period (Dishman, 2001), suggesting that retaining participants is a critical challenge facing sport and recreation providers. One approach to participant retention is fostering customer loyalty, which is expected to produce persistent, consistent behavior (Backman & Crompton, 1991). Research has shown that the quality of the programs provided and the derived customer satisfaction are strongly related to customer loyalty (Tian-Cole, Crompton, Wilson, 2002). To enhance customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, a primary goal of recreation agencies should be to meet participants’ expectations relative to the sport programs provided. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the service quality and intrapersonal need expectations of participants in a selected sport program, and to identify possible differences in expectations based on demographic characteristics. The sample included 124 volleyball players in leagues organized by the Champaign Park District. Fifty-one percent were female and ages ranged from 20 to 57 (MEAN=32); the majority were college graduates (57%), and 64% reported an annual income of less than $50,000. The SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al., 1988) was adapted to operationalize service quality expectations. The six dimensions measured were Tangibles, Responsiveness, Reliability, Personnel, and Context. The need-expectations construct (Mannell, 1999) was used to operationalize intrapersonal need expectations. Twenty-two items were developed based on previous research and discussions with program managers, and categorized into seven domains: Health, Fun, Competition, Appearance, Relaxation, Skills and Social. Data analysis determined that the reliability coefficients were acceptable for the measures of service quality expectations (.77 to .88) and intrapersonal need expectations (.79 to .90). The Fun (mean=5.8), Skills (mean=5.5) and Health (mean=5.4) scales received the highest mean scores with respect to intrapersonal needs. The service quality measures rated highest were Personnel, Tangibles and Context (Mean=5.7 for all three). Significant statistical differences were found for Appearance (F=4.2, p<. 05) and Skills (F=4.1, p<. 05) relative to age. The oldest group (41-50) had lower mean scores than the younger groups. No significant differences were found based on gender. Results also revealed a trend towards increased service quality expectations with increasing income, but the differences were only marginally significant for Context (F=2.7, p<. 05). The results suggest that providers can identify key dimensions of service quality for different target groups, and that programming for different age groups should concentrate on satisfying specific intrapersonal needs.