ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis head coach Kent Miller has announced the addition of University of Illinois transfer Jessica Jendryk (Wheaton, Ill./Benet Academy). Jendryk is an outside hitter who is expected to contribute right away. She will have one season of eligibility as a Billiken, beginning in 2013.

"We are very excited to have Jessica join our program,” Miller said. “She is an extraordinary athlete and a very high-level volleyball player. I was fortunate to coach Jessica for two years while I was an assistant at Illinois and could not have been more impressed with how hard she works and the quality of her character. She brings the experience of what it takes to compete at the highest level along with a mature leadership to our program. We expect her to make an immediate and significant impact."

At Illinois, Jendryk was named to the Big Ten All-Academic team and won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. At the annual Illini team banquet, she won the Coach's Award, which is now known as the Jessica Jendryk Coach's Award. As a senior for the Illini, she hit .381, including .421 in matches in which she started.

In high school, Jendryk played middle blocker for the Benet Redwings, who finished the 2008 regular season 34-1 and ranked ninth in the country by prepvolleyball.com. Benet also was ranked the top team in the preseason by the Chicago Sun-Times and fourth nationally by prepvolleyball.com. She led the Redwings with 98 blocks and a .447 hitting percentage, which earned her a spot on the Sun-Times All-State Team and Naperville Sun All-Area MVP accolades.

Jendryk was a three-time All-East Suburban Catholic Conference honoree and the 2008 ESCC MVP. She is fifth in career blocks in IHSA history (474) and was named an Honorable Mention All-American by Mizuno/Volleyball Magazine. She was ranked 45th on prepvolleyball.com's list of the nation's "Senior Aces" after her senior season in 2008.

Jendryk played for Sports Performance Volleyball Club and was on the national champion team at the 2008 AAU Open Division Championship in Orlando, Fla.  Jendryk was named an All-American in 2008 and was also a member of USA Women's Junior Red High Performance Team, which earned a bronze medal at the USA HP Championship in 2007.

Jessica Jendryk joins fellow newcomers Mal Dillon, Ashley Gagen, Taylor Paulson, Danielle Rygelski and Rebecca Tipton in the Billiken recruiting class of 2013.