Kull guided Saints through adversity

Some athletics programs are happy with a conference title. For others, a regional title will suffice.

The St. Charles East volleyball program has become the most successful in the area, almost to the point where it's State Finals or bust.

The Saints finished third in Illinois in 2007 and won the Class 4A crown last year. However, before the Saints could even think about a third consecutive trip Downstate, the campaign started with East practicing and playing matches at Wredling Middle School for the first half of the season due to damaged floor boards in its home gym.

That was just the first mishap in what proved to be one of the most trying seasons for Jennie Kull, The Courier-News Coach of the Year. Significant injuries to four starters led to the Saints dealing with a new starting six every couple weeks. In mid-October, the school was closed for half a week after 972 students called in sick.

"It's been unbelievable," Kull said. "It felt like we were constantly spinning our wheels as a staff, trying to make it as easy as possible for the kids, yet trying to survive. By the end it started to wear on us a little."

Sophomore libero Maisey Mulvey suffered a hip injury and missed the first month of the season. Middle blocker Kathleen Dailey was sidelined by a stress fracture in her foot. Just when the Saints thought they were getting healthy, they lost two of their biggest guns to ankle injuries just before the postseason. Senior setter/hitter Jacqui Seidel only missed the regional semifinal match, but wasn't at 100 percent the rest of the way. Senior outside hitter Caroline Niski's ankle injury was more severe. She was used only sparingly over the final three weeks of the season.

Still, East managed to hobble its way to a home super-sectional match against Cary-Grove, with the winner advancing to the State Finals. The injuries finally caught up with East as it fell to the eventual state champions, finishing the season at 32-7. They also won the Upstate Eight Conference title.

"It was a year that taught us a lot of lessons about pushing through and doing the best you can," said Kull, a four-time C-N Coach of the Year. "To end up in the super-sectional match, I felt so fortunate. I felt like we really did win because we were able to get further than we thought at that point."

Added Seidel: "Going into this year we were a young team, and the amount that every girl grew on this team was just fantastic. Everyone just grew up and got that experience."

The exclamation point on a roller-coaster season came on the Thursday following the loss to Cary-Grove, the day the Saints would have been on the bus heading for Illinois State University in Normal had they won. Outside hitter Sam Szarmach, a junior who replaced Caroline Niski in the starting lineup, had an emergency appendectomy.

"We would have been on the road probably pulling off at some hospital somewhere," Kull said.

"That was the final straw that no -- this wasn't our year to be going down there -- but we pushed as far as we could."

"It's kind of like an everything-happens-for-a-reason situation," said Seidel, a Ball State recruit. "It was just kind of a blessing in disguise, I guess."

With plenty of talent returning, maybe a reversal of fortune is in store for 2010.