Chloe DeMaio, Photo Courtesy: Dean Athletics
Chloe DeMaio is a sophomore at Dean College and is a Business major. Chloe's favorite activity to do is volleyball, and she was recruited to play for Dean College. I got the chance to get an interview with this student-athlete to get more of her background and talk about how she is dominating the GNAC conference.
Chloe was born and raised in Needham, Massachusetts. Chloe did play volleyball growing up. She played lacrosse at the age of five years old. Chloe played lacrosse until she was a freshman, but she did not end up playing because of COVID-19 back in 2020. Chloe planned to play lacrosse in college considering that all of her 13 cousins play for either D1 or D2 lacrosse in college.
Chloe's mom forced her to try out for volleyball during her freshman year of high school. Chloe did not want to play at all, and she told her mom that she would "…purposely do bad at tryouts" to not get on the team. She ended up making the freshman team because she was tall. Chloe was 5'7 her freshman year of high school. Once the freshman season started she ended up dropping all of the other sports she used to play which were lacrosse and basketball.
Chloe then played club volleyball and worked hard every day. In her sophomore year, she ended up playing for the JV team and she was a little upset, but it made her want to grind even more to make the varsity team. After a summer of training, Chloe tore her ACL, MCL, and meniscus at a tryout prep camp. She continued to try out for the varsity team a week later with her injuries. After making the varsity team Chloe got a full knee reconstruction surgery and began her difficult 14-month recovery. After missing out on her whole junior season, Chloe wasn't sure she had a college volleyball career in her future.
Photo Courtesy: Dean Athletics
Chloe was going to be a starter that season, but she felt defeated because she put all that work in over the summer and got nothing out of it. Chloe's Needham volleyball team ended up doing very well that season and won their second consecutive state championship. Chloe would keep her head up high and continue rehab until the next season. Her senior year was tough for her because she had to adjust to playing with a brace. Early into her senior season, she began to receive messages from college coaches around New England. Towards the end of the season, she received a message from Dean College's head women's volleyball coach Mark Ledwich.
Photo Courtesy: Dean Athletics
After reviewing some of Chloe's films, Coach Ledwich traveled to Needham to watch Chloe play in her high school team's first round of playoffs. After the win Chloe had a conversation with Coach Ledwich where he gave her an offer to play for the women's volleyball team at Dean. After receiving other offers and touring other schools Chloe decided that she wanted to play for Dean. Going into preseason of her freshman year Chloe was a little nervous but she quickly proved her skill and was able to start in the first game of the season. For the rest of her freshman year, she struggled with what her coach referred to as a "freshman mentality". She would be playing really well for a few games, and then one bad game or practice would put her in her head, and she would overthink and perform poorly. She worked on her confidence throughout her freshman year and came out sophomore year in full force.
Coach Ledwich has been noticing Chloe's hard work and leadership on and off the court. Coach Ledwich pulled Chloe aside and told her that she would be starting in their first game of the season. Chloe was excited and called her parents about the news. On August 30th, It was Chloe's time to prove that anything is possible with confidence. Coming from also a career-ending injury to making a D3 College start. Chloe ended up having her career best with a hitting percentage of .475 hitting percentage and 10 kills. The next game she won MVP of the match, with a .412 hitting percentage, nine kills, and two solo blocks.
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