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When UW women volleyball players enter Alaska Airlines Arena in Hec Ed and look up, they will see the retired number 16 of former Husky volleyball star Krista Vansant hanging from the rafters. When they look back down, guess who is walking in to help coach them: none other than Krista Vansant Hendrickson, ’15.

The school’s most decorated volleyball player is now an assistant coach on Leslie Gabriel’s staff, having returned to Seattle in July after stints as an assistant at the University of Illinois and before that, Indiana. “I loved working at Illinois and Indiana,” she says. “But it’s great being back.”

Krista Vansant is having a ball being back in the Pacific Northwest, serving as an assistant coach for the Husky women’s volleyball team she helped lead to national prominence as a player.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hendrickson—a two-time Honda Award recipient as the nation’s best volleyball player—has become a coach. Both of her parents are coaches.
The opportunity to return to the Pacific Northwest was a no-brainer for the Southern California native, who was the No. 1 national recruit coming out of high school. Today, the 6-foot-3 right-handed outside hitter works with servers and passers as well as the Huskies’ outside hitters.

And who better to learn from than Hendrickson? A member of the Husky Hall of Fame, she is one of only three women’s student-athletes to have their numbers retired in Alaska Airlines Arena. Gabriel, a longtime UW assistant coach before taking over as the head coach, says, “She brings experience, passion and a deep connection to our tradition and we’re thrilled to have her and her family back in Seattle.”

Hendrickson also brings a dazzling resume back to Montlake. She was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2011, an All-American as a sophomore in 2013 and in 2013, she led the Huskies to the Pac-12 title and the NCAA final four, earning AVCA National Player of the Year and the Honda Award. She repeated as the Honda Award winner as a senior in 2014 and won her second straight Pac-12 Player of the Year award. She finished as the school’s career kills leader with 1,893.

“Coming back to Seattle is truly a full-circle moment for me,” says Hendrickson. She is married to former Husky baseball player Duncan Hendrickson, ’16, ’18, with whom she has a 1-year-old son, Liam. “It brings us closer to our support system and to the city that shaped so much of who I am. As an alum of the Washington volleyball program, stepping into an assistant coaching role is incredibly meaningful—it’s a chance to give back to a program that had a lasting impact on my life.”