Building toward this moment
By Marie Zidek
When I look at year nine at DePaul, I don’t think about one match or one milestone. I think about growth.
This is my 19th year in Division I and my ninth as a head coach here, and every season brings a different team, a different challenge and a different chase. What makes this year unique is the opportunity to see how much we can grow from the beginning of the season to the end.
For the first time, I feel like everything at DePaul is aligned. The athletic department, our staff, our players and the support around our athletic programs are moving in the same direction. That allows us to focus on what it takes to become a high-performing team: the culture, the behaviors, the discipline and the quality of volleyball we need every day.
We have talent. We have depth. Now, we just have to learn how to put it all together.
We’re going to find out quickly. We have put a phenomenal schedule in front of this team, one that is going to force us through what I call “the crucible of chasing high performance.” That’s exciting to me because every experience is supposed to give us another layer of skin.
Taking a Big Swing in Chicago
Hosting Nebraska at Wintrust Arena is something I have envisioned for a long time.
When I got the DePaul job in 2018, Wintrust had just opened. One of my dream-big goals was eventually to bring a marquee volleyball matchup into that building. We love playing in Lincoln Park, and we want to continue playing there, but I could see what Wintrust could mean for volleyball and for the DePaul brand.
I had originally imagined something like a conference challenge, bringing several great programs together. But timing and circumstance matter in this industry. The Nebraska match came together through the Big Ten-SEC Challenge at Wrigley, and suddenly an opportunity was sitting right in front of us.
I have a phenomenal teammate in DeWayne Peevy who was willing to think big and believe in the vision. We looked at it and said this could be a win-win. We get to put DePaul into the narrative of what’s happening in women’s volleyball, while Nebraska gets another marquee event in Chicago.
And Chicago is going to be a volleyball mecca that weekend. We’ll have Nebraska at Wintrust, Penn State at Lincoln Park, the Wrigley games Sunday and the AVP championship at the lakefront. Being a small part of that is something I’m honored and humbled by.
The attendance piece is exciting, too. I feel very confident we’re going to be able to break the Illinois single-match record. But what excites me most is what that crowd represents: people discovering DePaul volleyball and becoming part of what we’re building.
The South Side Never Leaves You
Being from Chicago makes everything here feel different.
You feel the failures more. You self-criticize more. You feel every little win more. Losing a recruit cuts deeper, and the wins feel sweeter. I have a lot of skin in the game because this is my city.
I grew up on the South Side falling in love with sports, and getting the opportunity to come back and lead DePaul was already a dream. But I also put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself because I want to put a championship banner on that wall.
This season adds another uniquely Chicago layer. When Penn State comes to town, I’ll be coaching against Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who also grew up on the South Side. She’s a generation older than me, and I remember watching her play high school volleyball when I was in grade school. She had her jersey retired in both volleyball and basketball at Mother McAuley, where my aunt also played and won a state championship.
Then our paths crossed again as coaches. Katie and I spent two summers together running volleyball camps at Palos Courts, working from morning until evening with beginners and young players. We started our coaching journeys around the same time, and our careers eventually took us in different directions before bringing us both back to this level. To see her leading Penn State now, after everything she’s accomplished, makes the matchup incredibly special. There will probably be a little tear shed before or after that one, just because of what it represents.
My Chicago roots also come with a responsibility to the volleyball community. Chicago has a tremendous history in this sport, and I feel like I’ve picked up where the community I grew up in left off. Now it’s my turn to help organize the beginner skill clinics.
That’s why we run grassroots camps and education and outreach. Even though we’re a high-level Division I program, we want our doors open to beginners and people who have never experienced volleyball. We want our players and staff to help inspire the next generation.
The South Side also taught me how I want to coach. Work ethic is a huge part of it. So is relentlessness. You get punched, you get back up. You do your job, you do it well, and if something needs to get done, you stay late and get it done.
I’m direct with my players. We have high expectations, but we respect them as young adults. We don’t have a list of rules as much as we have standards. And if I’m going to hold them to those standards, they also know I’ll go to bat for them any day of the week.
From the Bottom, We Kept Showing Up
When I took over, DePaul was 285th in the country out of 320 schools and dead last in the conference. My first group was incredibly accomplished academically and in community service, but we had to work for every point on the volleyball court.
Our first year, we were trying to score 20 points.
What I’m most proud of isn’t one win or one season. It’s the relentlessness of everybody involved. Every year, players chose courage over fear. They bought into each other and kept showing up even when the program was fighting for momentum.
The first major breakthrough came in 2021, when we went 12-6 and qualified for the Big East Championship for the first time. That team showed me we could actually beat people in this league. Then 2023 and 2024 brought back-to-back 20-win seasons and postseason opportunities.
Those seasons proved the program could grow.
I’ve also had to grow with it. When I started, I knew volleyball. I didn’t necessarily know how to lead and administer a program. It took me until about year five to really find my coaching voice.
My athletic department gave me patience. My players gave me grace. My staff and I had each other’s backs. Now I’m in my third contract, through 2030-31, and I have the time to focus more deliberately on people and process while staying outcome-aware.
That’s an important distinction. Early in my career, I was very outcome-focused because I had to prove we could win. Now we’ve built enough momentum that I can spend more energy refining the culture that will allow us to break through.
What I'm most proud of isn't one win or one season. It's the relentlessness of everybody involved. Every year, players chose courage over fear. They bought into each other and kept showing up even when the program was fighting for momentum.
The Chase Is Still the Point
I believe we can get this done. I’ve seen other Big East programs do it.
Marquette went from struggling to becoming a national-level program. Creighton has climbed to the point where it is competing deep into the national picture. The Big East rewards people who work, communicate honestly, handle adversity and stay composed.
You have to know how to coach. You have to put together a team that believes it can play. And then, at 7 o’clock on Friday night, you have to go do it.
That’s what this season is about for us.
The Nebraska match will give us one kind of test. Penn State will give us another. Opening at Drake will challenge us in a different way. Each experience is another opportunity to learn, grow and then be bold enough to put ourselves back in the arena.
I want my players to understand that we’re not robots. There is a human element to this. My job is to meet people where they are, challenge them to grow and hold the standard while helping them become better people.
Women’s volleyball is also entering what I believe is a players era. The sport is growing, women’s sports are gaining more resources and athletes have more opportunities than ever. These players are helping drive that movement.
So our responsibility is bigger than what happens on one scoreboard. We want to win, absolutely. I want that championship banner. But I also want to build something that lasts, grow the game in Chicago and give our players a program they are proud to have been part of.
We’re going to stay relentless in that chase.
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