VINCENNES, Ind. – The four-time defending Region 24 Champion Vincennes University Volleyball team picked up the first signing of their 2025 recruiting class earlier this week with the signing of outside hitter Kenli Sullivan.
“Kenli reached out to us early in May,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “We were interested right away knowing that we are going to have to replace quite a bit of offense from this past season. We’re also, along with everyone else in the country, always looking for six-rotation players that can do just as well in the back row as they do in the front row. So, it was a pretty quick response from us after watching her video footage, that’s for sure”
“One thing that I think was important to Kenli is that she wanted to stay close to home,” Sien added. “She attends Bloomington North but she actually lives closer to Bloomfield so she’s more of a local athlete.”
“With Kenli we like her skill set, her ability to play in six rotations, her ability at the net to hit and block and definitely her first ball contact skills,” Sien said. “But we’re also looking at her as someone who has potential leadership ability. I really see her as someone who can come in right away and contribute to being a leader as a freshman.”
Sullivan comes to Vincennes University from Bloomington High School North and the Limestone Capital VBC club team.
Sullivan is coming off of a strong senior season where she helped guide the Cougars to a 21-12 record with 374 kills, 121 digs, 46 aces, 21 block and four set assists and a .287 hitting percentage and the school’s first Volleyball Sectional Championship in 19 years.
Sullivan was named three times to the Conference Indiana Volleyball All-Conference list, being an honorable mention as a sophomore and earning First Team honors as a junior and senior.
Sullivan was also named to First Team All-Area by the Herald-Times in Bloomington and was twice named Area Volleyball Player of the Year, including earning Co-Player of the Year honors alongside teammate Avery Freeman who has signed to play at Indiana University next season.
Sullivan was named Bloomington North Volleyball Offensive Player of the Year twice and won the team’s Gold Award for being team MVP this past season.
Sullivan is a multi-sport athlete as Bloomington North, earning All-Conference honors and a Sectional Championship as a High Jumper and was an All-Conference basketball player, finishing the season as the team leader in field goal percentage and rebounds in 2022.
Sullivan got her start as a freshman at Eastern Greene High School where she earned All-Conference honors in Volleyball, Basketball and Track and Field as a freshman and led the Thunderbirds in kills in volleyball, field goal percentage and rebounds in basketball and was a First Team All-Area basketball player.
Sullivan was a member of the Bloomington North Track and Field team that placed fourth at the State Championships as a sophomore and were Runner-ups last year as a junior.
“Obviously we’re in the state of Indiana,” Sien said. “I think everybody here has to play basketball at some point in their life. One thing that I can say about players who have played basketball is that they have faced some hard coaching. Not saying that you won’t get that in volleyball because I don’t deflect from coaching hard at times. But if you are getting athletes that have played basketball at a high level, I think you are going to get athletes that are more hard-nosed.”
“In volleyball, you have the net between you and the other players,” Sien added. “Obviously in basketball you don’t have that, so you are going to get hit left and right, go up against maybe five or six other people on rebounds. I’ve found that athletes who have played basketball and she played some serious basketball for a while tend to be a little more tougher”
Sullivan is the daughter of Dawn Hostetter and Curt Sullivan and plans to major in Business at Vincennes University.
“Kenli’s heart is in Southern Indiana,” Bloomington North Volleyball Coach Disney Bronnenberg said. “She comes from a great family and she loves this place. As a respected mentor to younger players and a trusted peer with her fellow teammates, she has developed into a true ambassador of volleyball in the highly talented arena that is Southern Indiana High School Volleyball. It’s so exciting to see her decide to continue that at a University that resides so close to the place and people she values so dearly.”
“That great love for this sport is evidenced by Kenli’s training mindset and her performance in high-pressure moments,” Bronnenberg added. “Looking at her stats, the 800-plus kills in just three years at BHSN, it’s easy to see she was trusted with the ball as a hitter when the pressure was there but here’s another stat, from the service line, when both teams were over 20 points in a game, she had a less than six-percent error rate and she served the opposition out of system 73 percent of the time in those moments. This is Kenli. She is mindful but still wholly aggressive when the heat goes up in the game. I look forward to watching her bring that intensity to the VU gym.”
“Something that stands out to me is how the Trailblazer roster is highlighted by many players with multiple positions next to their names,” Bronnenberg said. “There is a lot of breadth and depth to what Kenli brings to this game. She has played opposite, six-rotation outside hitter as well as helping out in the middle for us during her time as a Cougar and it’s great to see her join a program that encourages and trains such versatility in their players. I can’t wait to see her continue her growth as a player and a student as a Trailblazer. She has a lot of greatness ahead of her and I know the team at VU will find their time with Kenli as meaningful and memorable as we have at Bloomington North.”
“We’re always looking for length,” Sien said. “I think every coach in every sport, here and everywhere is looking for athletes coming from winning programs and getting athletes who know how to win because that’s something that I can’t coach. No coach can teach someone how to win or how to be competitive, those are things that they have to bring with them. Being less than competitive is unacceptable. Losing happens, you are going to lose at times but if you know the difference between losing but being competitive, as a player, coach and a team, you’re going to be fine.”
“We’ve got a lot of offense that we are graduating this year,” Sien added. “At this level that’s just the way that it is. It happens almost on a yearly basis that we have to recruit to replace those types of numbers, so it’s not something we’re not used to. This year it’s our hitting and blocking, we’re looking to replace almost 90 percent from this past season.”
“We see Kenli as a player whose game will translate very well to this next level. She will certainly contribute to replacing those offensive numbers.”
Sullivan is joining a Trailblazer squad coming off a 30-13 season, securing VU’s fourth straight NJCAA Division I Region 24 Championship and an 18-3 record against Region 24 opponents.
The Vincennes University Athletic Department is excited to welcome Kenli Sullivan to the 2024 Trailblazer recruiting class.
