Krista Hendrickson Earns AVCA Thirty Under 30 Recognition

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The American Volleyball Coaches Association recognized its Thirty Under 30 coaches for 2024 on Wednesday. Illinois volleyball assistant coach Krista Hendrickson was a recipient of the honor. 

Hendrickson joined the Illini volleyball program prior to the 2022 season after spending four years at Indiana. In her time in Champaign thus far, she has seen success within the Fighting Illini program, as outside hitter Raina Terry earned AVCA All-Region honors and All-Big Ten First Team recognition in 2022 and 2023. Under Hendrickson’s tutelage, Illini setter Brooke Mosher earned All-Freshman Team honors playing out of position as a pin hitter in 2022, a season in which she posted two 20-plus kill matches during league play.

This season alone, Hendrickson has guided Laynie Smith to greatness as a freshman. The opposite notched 11 kills in her collegiate debut against Cincinnati on Aug. 30, becoming the first true freshman donning the Orange and Blue to post double-digit kills in her collegiate debut since Jacqueline Quade recorded a squad-best 15 kills against Arkansas on Aug. 26, 2016. Terry also continues to shine with help from Hendrickson, earning her first Big Ten Player of the Week award this season.

Hendrickson was selected as an assistant coach for the USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team Japan Tour in the summer of 2019 and was also selected for the U.S. Women’s Junior National Team coaching staff for the summer of 2020. In 2023, Hendrickson reprised her role as an assistant with USA Volleyball, coaching at the 2023 Girls U19 NORCECA Pan American Cup.

A stellar player in her own right, Hendrickson, formerly Vansant, left Washington as the most decorated volleyball player ever to wear the purple and gold. In 2013, Hendrickson became the first Husky to claim the AVCA National Player of the Year award, while also earning ESPNW National Player of the Year recognition as a senior in 2014. Her jersey hangs in the rafters as one of two numbers retired by the program. She was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 2023.

The Thirty Under 30 honor, which was created in 2009, spotlights up-and-coming coaches at all levels of volleyball—college, high school, and club—and the recipients serve in a range of roles, from head coach to volunteer assistant to club director. 

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