CHICAGO – First-year Chicago State University (CSU) head volleyball coach Bob Eskew has announced today that former Bloom High School standouts Valeria Desiderio (Chicago Heights, Ill.) and Rebecca Dill (Chicago Heights, Ill.) will join the Cougars as newcomers for the upcoming 2010 season.
Desiderio and Dill teamed up to help Bloom post a 56-11 record in their final two seasons under Eskew that included a 29-3 mark during the 2009 season and were ranked as high as seventh in the Chicago Sun-Times area poll. During the 2008 season, both players helped the Blazing Trojans to a 27-8 overall record and captured the SICA South championship.
“Valeria and Rebecca are going to be great additions for our program. They come from a very successful program (at Bloom) in which they won three conference titles together and they are the type of student-athletes that we plan on bringing to Chicago State in the future,” Eskew stated.
Desiderio, a 5-11 outside hitter, was a two-time all-conference performer, earned All-Area honors from the Sun-Times and the Southtown Star newspapers, and captured All-State honors from the Champaign News-Gazette. She averaged 7.1 kills, 6.3 digs and one service ace per set last year en route to garnering Player of the Year accolades from the Northwest Indiana Times newapaper. Two of her best performances came against Andrew (15 digs, 11 kills) in the IHSA Class 4A state tournament and Rich Central (13 kills). In addition to her volleyball accolades, Desiderio also captured all-conference honors as a member of the girls’ soccer team at Bloom.
The 5-7 Dill started all four years at setter for Bloom and was a team captain in three of those seasons while leading the Blazing Trojans to 104 wins in her career and finished second in program history for assists. Last season, she posted averages of 13.7 assists, 3.8 digs and one service ace per set. Dill claimed all-area honors from the Sun-Times and the Southtown Star for two years and is a three-time all-conference honoree in volleyball to go along with a pair of all-conference honors she received as a member of the Bloom girls’ basketball team. In her final prep match, she dished out 21 assists versus Andrew in the IHSA Class 4A state tournament.
~CSU~