CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Eastern Illinois volleyball is proud to announce the hiring of Kate Price as the new assistant volleyball coach.  Price joins the Panther program after winning the 2007 National Volleyball Championship her senior year at Penn State University, as well as a one year stint as the assistant coach at Centenary College this past season.

“We're really excited to have Kate join our program,” said first year head coach Alan Segal. “She played four years at Penn State, winning a National Championship just two years ago. Plus she has experience as an assistant coach at Centenary and comes from a great volleyball family up in Michigan.”

Segal said that while Price was here for her interview, she got along great with everyone and that the volleyball squad was very excited about having her join the program. “While she was on campus, she attended our practice and showed off her national championship ring, which was a pretty exciting thing for the girls. Our ladies understand that we are getting an assistant coach that understands what it takes to win and what hard work means, which will be an obvious added plus to our program.”

In her four seasons at Penn State, Price earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-Mideast Region, Big Ten 'Freshman of the Year', Stanford Invitational 'Most Valuable Player', Penn State Invitational All-Tournament Team, and Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors. Not only did Penn State win the 2007 National Championship, but the Nittany Lions also captured the Big Ten championship all four years that she was a member of the squad. She finished her PSU career by playing in 426 of 456 total games, while tallying 755 kills, 80 service aces and 866 career digs. As a freshman, her 424 kill numbers led all Lions that season.

“She played in a variety of positions while at Penn State, doing different stuff all the time,” Segal said. “She played outside, mostly on the right, and also played in the role of defensive specialist and some libero work. Her ball control is great, plus she has a big swing. She is going to be a great person to have to assist our passing and defensive systems.”

Job-duty wise, Segal expects Price to do a little bit of everything in assisting the program. “She'll be doing everything for us. First off, I plan on letting her get her feet wet by running our volleyball camp this summer,” he said. “Since we are basically done with recruiting for this coming year, we'll let her get out there to start looking at 2010 recruits. Basically I want her to be involved in everything we do, including the day-to-day stuff like practices, games, running the new film exchange/ film breakdown system, and the everyday stuff, too, although her biggest duties will probably be working with our passers, outside hitters, and defensive units.”

“Kate has played at a level that none of our girls have seen before which will be great, so her input will be amazing,” said Segal. 

... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID