“It’s an almost impossible story. But she proved it possible.”
Karch Kiraly U.S. Women’s Head Coach
VERSATILE: Kim Hill’s strong hitting was critical to the U.S. Women’s success at the FIVB World Championship, but she also contributed in the backcourt with accurate passing and aggressive defense. (Photo: FIVB)
stretch of a college career in which she became the fi rst and only student-athlete ever to be an AVCA All-America First-Team selection in both indoor and sand volleyball. She was looking forward to a little time off hanging out with her best friend, Lilla Fred- erick, who was her indoor teammate and sand partner at Pepperdine. But Lilla’s mom, Lynda Frederick, had other ideas. “She told us, ‘This is your one chance; you need to do it now or you’ll regret it,’” Hill says. “And we were saying, ‘No. It’s our spring break. We don’t want to go. We want to have fun.’ But she pushed us to do it.”
Good thing. The tryout, which included
240 players, earned Hill an invitation to train with the national team later in the spring, and she made the roster and, well, the rest is history. Literally. Her MVP performance at the 2014 World Championship helped the U.S. women win a grand slam tournament (Olympics, FIVB World Cup, FIVB World Championship) for the fi rst time in the program’s history. “It’s an almost impossible story,” says Karch Kiraly, the U.S. Women’s head coach. “But she proved it possible.” Kiraly and his staff were obviously impressed with Hill’s tryout, more so, certainly, than she was. Hill didn’t leave Colorado Springs feeling as if she’d nailed the audition.
“Lilla and I had been playing only beach (for the previous year), so we started the tryouts feeling completely awkward playing indoors again — feeling out of shape and feeling like we were doing silly things that we wouldn’t normally do. The last day, I felt like I was playing a little better, but I didn’t think anything would come out of it. I talked to Karch, and he said I had a good tryout, and I thought that’s as far as it would go. I
wrote in my journal, ‘Karch talked to me today.’ I was completely satisfi ed with that, just getting advice from the man himself. “Then Karch sent me an email a couple of weeks later saying I had a tryout in two months. I was over the moon. I think I saved that email because I was thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh. Karch emailed me.’ Little did I know that more would come of it.”
n the gold-medal match of the World Championship on Oct. 12, Hill led all scorers with 20 points – including a kill on match point – in a 3-1 victory over China. Two matches earlier, she’d also had a match-leading 20 points in a crucial win over Russia, which paved the way for the team to advance.
I
An interesting teaching point from her performance is that it came after she and the other outside hitters worked to make adjustments in their technique following a disappointing U.S. performance at the FIVB World Grand Prix a month earlier. “We modifi ed some things for our left- side in terms of not wanting them to get quite so wide and quite so far away from where they’re going to attack,” Kiraly says. “I think that was a big one for Kim. We em- phasized to our setters that if they were go- ing to miss, they should miss a little inside and miss a little off (the net). Kim adjusted her footwork so she could get to those sets very well. When a setter feels comfortable setting somebody, that setter is going to set more accurately over the long haul. So if you’re a hitter and you’re easy to set, that’s a good thing, and Kim is easy to set.” From Hill’s perspective, the training
before the World Championship was big. “We run a really fast set to the pin, so
there’s not a lot of room for errors as far as the setters go,” she says. “We realized we
KIM HILL QUICK FACTS Hometown: Portland, Oregon College: Pepperdine Position: Outside hitter Height: 6-4
Awards: MVP of 2014 FIVB World Cham- pionship, 2014 USAV Female Indoor Most Improved Player, 2011 AVCA All-America First Team (indoor), 2012 and 2013 AVCA All- America First-team All American (sand)
Her other sport: Hill played basketball throughout high school, fi rst as a point guard and then in the post. Eventually, she decided that volleyball was her No. 1. “Until my soph- omore year, I thought I would play basketball in college, but I got tired of girls scratching me and pinching me and doing dirty little stuff like that. Having a net to separate you defi nitely helps.”
ALL SMILES: Pepperdine alumnus Kim Hill rubbed shoulders with FIVB President Ary S. Garca when receiving her most valuable player award in Milan, Italy. (Photo: FIVB)
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