Girls volleyball: Saints send Kull out a winner in final regular season match

Lexi Crossen had tears welling toward the end of the interview.

For Crossen and the eight additional St. Charles East seniors, Wednesday night had a dual significant purpose - senior night - and the final regular season match of St. Charles East coach Jennie Kull's 36-year coaching career.

"She is the most caring person, never leaves anyone out," Crossen said following the Saints' 25-22, 25-18 win over Downers Grove North. "She always has a heart for everyone. Sorry, I get emotional about it."

Julia Ferrandino, also a fellow senior, quickly joined in.

"She really does. She really cares about every single one of her players," Ferrandino said. "She goes the farthest she can go to help them."

Kull and assistant coaches Mark Wallin and Jim Reed were honored with a post-match ceremony with family, friends and some former players and coaches dating back to 2001 in attendance.

"There's no words. There's no words for the people that have been in my life and made this experience for me amazing," Kull said in the ceremony. "You'd think that I did something. I did nothing. I have all these wonderful people. I was blessed with great kids and great parents. Wonderful parents ... amazing coaches that have supported me. Administration, our custodians that have helped us and these two people right here [motioning to her daughters Katie and Morgan] ... my sister, my family [and husband] that's here. I love you guys for coming."

Pre-match, however, the spotlight shone brightest on the following nine players: Lia Schneider, Kristen Erickson, Kate Goudreau, Kayla Le, Natalee Rush, Natalie Gibbard, Morgan Kirch, Ferrandino and Crossen.

Each young lady walked out to center court with their parents as their favorite memories, life advice and more were read aloud.

"It's really awesome looking back and seeing all the other seniors doing it. Now, it's really our time," Ferrandino said. "It just really flew by. It's awesome."

The Saints (27-7, 5-2) staved off a small rally by the Trojans to close the first set, but shot out to a commanding 21-14 advantage in the second to put the match away.

Goudreau led with nine kills, while Rush had three kills and an ace to pace the Saints. Ferrandino also added four aces and two kills.

One moment on the court that for sure is saved in the memory bank for Ferrandino was the Saints defeating Benet in three sets on Sept. 7.

"We all worked together as a team," Ferrandino said. "We all wanted it so much that when we finally got it, it was so rewarding."

For Crossen, her memories consist of team bonding activities and all of the "stuff Kull made us do to become the family that we are today."

"How we play on the team, how we play on the court," Crossen said. "It's just insane playing with amazing players all around me."

Downers Grove North (13-22) now turns its attention to the postseason after a challenging regular season slate.

The Trojans were paced by senior Emma Barton and Colleen Engstler's four kills apiece.

"We're super young. At times, I have a freshman and three sophomores out there," Trojans coach Mark Wasik said. "And then some of my older players are young [because] this is their first time playing varsity volleyball. It's been a journey because we play a killer schedule and the goal is the schedule is going to prepare us to play competitively [come playoff time]."

"We're struggling on the record end of things [face value], but we came out here and fought against a really nice [East team]."