HILL Kimberly

General
TOUGH SCHEDULE
She took a break from international competition in 2019 due to fatigue and missed the United States of America's victory at that year's Nations League in People's Republic of China. She says the volleyball schedule is tough for players and has called for changes to the schedule. "Our job is just really tough because we go from our club season directly into our international team and directly back into our club season. It's kind of non-stop. These past two years were really non-stop for me, really going from one day to the other immediately. The coaches, thankfully, let me have a little bit of a breath to be at home to re-centre my head and it was really amazing. It's made such a huge difference for me. Please change this calendar. It is not sustainable and does not put athletes first." (teamusa.org, 29 Jul 2019; volleynews.it, 21 May 2019)

NEAR MISS
In February 2013 she was one of 240 players to attend an open try-out for the national team in Colorado Springs, CO, United States. She was the only player invited back by coach Karch Kiraly, but had originally not planned to attend. "My best friend [Lilla Frederick] also played at Pepperdine. Her mother called us the day before the try-out and told us we needed to go. I told her it was too late and there was no reason to go because we wouldn't make the team. She told us to go for the experience, so we booked a plane ticket at the last minute." (portlandtribune.com, 04 Dec 2014)

She became the first volleyball player from the United States of America to win the Most Valuable Player [MVP] award at the world championships, after receiving the award at the 2014 edition in Italy. (fivb.org, 12 Oct 2014)

In 2011/12 she became the first student athlete to be named in the American Volleyball Coaches Association [AVCA] All-America first team in both volleyball and beach volleyball in the same academic year. (pepperdinesports.com, 10 Dec 2013)