Krista Hendrickson (née Vansant) sat on her couch with her husband, watching TV and relaxing at home on what seemed to be a typical Saturday night. That day quickly turned out to be anything but normal when she received a phone call from an unexpected number.
It was Jen Cohen, the former athletic director at her alma mater, Washington, calling to inform Hendrickson that she would be inducted into the University of Washington Husky Hall of Fame and one of eight members of the Class of 2023.
"It was very surreal. I didn't feel like it was a real moment. You don't get calls from big-time athletic directors out of the blue every day, so it was a very surreal moment," Hendrickson said. "Knowing that I'm going to get recognition of this magnitude for something I enjoyed so much is super meaningful to me."
Immediately calling her parents to share the news, Hendrickson became the fourth player in Washington volleyball program history to earn the honor after a legendary four-year career with the Huskies.
Hendrickson knew she was special long before her college days. After first getting into the sport at the age of 8, the Redlands, Calif., native earned her first Power-5 scholarship offers when she was in seventh grade. Admittedly overwhelmed with the national attention at such a young age, Hendrickson quickly realized she had what it takes to compete at the college level despite still being several years away from playing NCAA volleyball.
"I was like, 'I don't even know what I want to do with my life. I can barely get through my fourth-period math class, let alone worry about what I'm gonna do for college,'" Hendrickson said. "It was pretty crazy."
Going on college visits as a freshman in high school, Hendrickson ultimately decided to stay on the West Coast and committed to Washington when she was 16, one year prior to being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2010.Â
Once she arrived in Seattle as a freshman in 2011, Hendrickson made an immediate impact on the program. Starting all 32 matches and the lone Husky to play in all 108 sets during her freshman campaign, Hendrickson registered a team-high 398 kills and earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors, the second player in Washington history to earn that accolade.
Hendrickson continued that momentum heading into her sophomore season, garnering All-America second-team honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association and earning a spot on the All-Pac 12 and All-Pacific Region teams. She played a central role in guiding the Huskies to a Sweet 16 berth in the NCAA Tournament, but she was only getting started.
As a junior, Hendrickson put together one of the best seasons in program history. She became the first student-athlete in program history to earn the coveted AVCA National Player of the Year award and received the Honda Award, which honored the nation's top player. An AVCA first-team All-American and Pac-12 Player of the Year honoree, Hendrickson guided the Huskies all the way to the Final Four, which was hosted in Seattle.
"Our striving goal was to be playing in that Final Four in our home city. We even took our team photo with KeyArena in the background, which is where that Final Four was played, because that was kind of our goal to be back there," Hendrickson said. "My junior season was probably when I started to be like, 'OK, I'm kind of figuring this thing out.' My freshman and sophomore years were really hard, but I don't think I would have gotten to where I was at my junior year if I didn't have those hard days as a freshman and sophomore."
One of Hendrickson's proudest moments of her playing career came in the 2013 Elite Eight, when Washington took on USC in Los Angeles. Though the Huskies defeated the Trojans twice during the regular season, they fell behind, 2-0, but Hendrickson helped complete the reverse sweep and secure a spot in the Final Four with career-high marks of 38 kills and 30 digs.
"It was a match I just knew I had to come together with my teammates and be like, 'Hey, this isn't going to work this way. We are not going down without a fight.' It was one of the more emotional wins I had in my career. I felt pretty good leaving that match for a lot of different reasons. It's near my hometown so I had a bunch of family there, and it was just a cool environment to win and go to the Final Four."
Following her junior season, Hendrickson was informed that her number would be retired immediately after finding out she was named the National Player of the Year. Heading into her college career, she never imagined she would receive the accolades she would eventually go on to win, but she took the sport by storm and became one of the greatest players in Husky history.
"My first couple years were really hard just because I was learning a new system and playing at a high level. Night in and night out, it was really challenging," Hendrickson said. "I think when people see the accolades and things that I've earned, people assume that it was really easy, that I just came in, was really good.Â
"It was really challenging. There were a lot of really hard days where I was questioning myself, questioning everything. My family and my parents built me to be pretty tough. They were like, 'Hey, you have to stick it out, day to day. It's gonna be tough. Don't give up.'"
In her final season at Washington, in 2014, Hendrickson won both the Honda Award and Pac-12 Player of the Year for the second consecutive season alongside AVCA All-America honors for the third straight campaign. She also received the Tom Hansen Conference Medal, which is awarded by the Pac-12 to each member school's most outstanding senior male and female student-athletes.
On Hendrickson's senior night, she led the Huskies to an upset of top-ranked – and previously unbeaten – Stanford with a team-high 21 kills.
"It was pretty cool as your senior night to pick off the No. 1 team in the nation," Hendrickson said. "I don't even remember my stats or how well I played; it was more about the win for my fellow seniors, and to go out on that note in regular-season play was pretty great."
Now in her second year as an assistant coach at Illinois, Hendrickson will travel back to her alma mater for the Husky Hall of Fame Class of 2023 induction ceremony on Oct. 22. One of eight members of this year's class, Hendrickson has shifted her legacy into coaching, and she is beyond proud to be honored and recognized as one of the greatest players to ever represent the Washington Huskies volleyball program.
"I don't know if I've had a good amount of time to process quite yet just how meaningful it is to me. I always talk about my college experience, and it was the main reason of why I wanted to get into coaching now," Hendrickson said. "It's because I had the most amazing student-athlete experience, and I want to share that with the athletes now. I always wanted to win and do it at a really high level, but these individual accolades were never anything I strived for. It was a result of how hard I worked and the blood, sweat, and tears that you put into it when you play at that level.
"I don't know if I can put it into words, but it's super meaningful to me and it's something that I am extremely proud of."
