USAV Volleyball Contributed to this Release

MALIBU, Calif. - After leading the U.S. Women's National Team to their first-ever gold medal at the 2014 FIVB World Championships, Pepperdine women's volleyball alumna Kim Hill ends her whirlwind year with the national team with another award. Hill was named 2014 USA Volleyball Female Indoor Most Improved Player of the Year.

Hill (Portland, Ore./Portland Christian HS) was a three-time AVCA All-American for the Waves indoor squad from 2008-11. She also was a two-time All-American on the Pepperdine sand squad, and a member of the inaugural 2012 AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championship-winning team.

"It's such a great honor, especially with the culture of the USA gym where everyone is working so hard to improve all of time," said Hill, who solidified her spot among the world's elite in just her second season with the U.S. Women's National Team after become the most valuable player of the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship. "This program just breeds improvement and I'm so happy that I've gotten to be a part of it."

"Our athletes' number-one job is to improve, and Kim has done stellar work in that pursuit," U.S. National Team head coach Karch Kiraly said. "To start, she needed convincing to attend the USA Women's Open Tryout in February of 2013. Twenty months later, she earned the MVP of a major international competition. Kim's focused improvement, making strides in several facets of her game even late in the season, helped lead our team to World Championship victory - right down to her kill on the final play."

Over the summer, Hill helped Team USA make history by winning gold at the FIVB World Championships. The U.S. Women had never before won gold at any of the three major international volleyball events: World Championship, World Cup or Olympic Games. Prior to today, their best finish came in 1967 and 2002 when the team took the silver medal.

Hill led the U.S. in the decisive title match versus China with 20 points, going 19 on 31 attempts with only one fault. She also had 13 digs and 25 excellent receptions on 39 attempts before earned MVP honors at the tournament.

In 2014, Hill started 24 matches while averaging 2.99 points and 1.24 digs per set. She converted 38.4 percent of her attacks into points.

All the pieces came together for Hill during the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship as she scored 20 points in the gold-medal match leading Team USA to a four-set win over China. For her efforts, Hill was named the most valuable player of the World Championship, joining a legacy of names such as Lang Ping of China, Regla Torres of Cuba, Irina Parkhamchuk of Soviet Union and Ekaterina Gamova of Russia as past MVPs of the FIVB's signature event.

Hill looks back to a disappointing FIVB World Grand Prix as a factor in her World Championship most valuable player performance.

"Well I think the biggest breakthrough for me personally was working on my hitting," Hill said. "After a disappointing performance at World Grand Prix, we came back to the gym and us outside hitters started working on specific points of our approach and being more explosive to the ball. Since I don't have the arm that a lot of big hitters have, being explosive is huge for me and that's made a big difference."

Hill is currently in Italy, playing professionally with Igor Volley Novara.