Kyla Richey

Kyla Richey (born 20 June 1989) is a Canadian former volleyball player. An outside hitter, she represented the Canada women's national volleyball team from 2009 to 2021, earning 143 international caps and serving as team captain from 2018 until her retirement. She is the only Canadian woman to have competed in three FIVB World Championships (2010, 2014, 2018).

At university level, Richey won five consecutive national championships with the UBC Thunderbirds and was named U Sports Championship MVP in 2009 and U Sports Women's Volleyball Player of the Year in 2011–12.

Early life Richey grew up in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, on the Sunshine Coast. Richey started playing volleyball at age 10 and first represented Canada when she was in Grade 10. She won the U Sports National Championship in each of her five seasons with UBC, becoming a five-time national champion. In her final year (2011–12), she won the Mary Lyons Award as U Sports Women's Volleyball Player of the Year and was co-recipient of the May Brown Trophy as UBC's outstanding graduating female athlete. She then played for Yeşilyurt Istanbul in Turkey (2013–14) and Tiboni Urbino in Italy's Serie A1 in 2014. She spent 2019–20 with Indias de Mayagüez in Puerto Rico and concluded her professional career with Stade Français Paris Saint-Cloud in France's Ligue A Féminine in 2020–21.

National team career Richey joined Canada's national program in 2005, making the Junior National team while still in high school. and the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan.

Richey was named captain of the national team in 2018. Under her captaincy, Canada won the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup in Lima, Peru, defeating the Czech Republic in the final to qualify for the Volleyball Nations League for the first time. She served as captain until her retirement in 2021.

Personal life Richey had a brother, Connor, who suddenly passed away in 2013. She married former national team player Rudy Verhoeff. After retiring from volleyball, Richey and her husband founded Valley Commons Winery in Oliver, British Columbia.