'Extremely Competitive' Lilley Hopes to Help Cats Take Next Step
Kentucky setter Madison Lilley cannot deny it. Even if she wanted to, Lilley cannot shy away from the fact that she has one overriding characteristic in her personality.
“I’m extremely competitive and I’m a very ‘life’s a competition’ person,” Lilley said recently in an interview with UKathletics.com “Competing is just so fun for me and I love being fiery and I love competing with other people.”
Lilley’s competitive spirit has elevated the Wildcats’ program during her two years in Lexington. In 2017, Lilley took over as the team’s starting setter and led the Cats to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the modern era. In Lilley’s second season, Kentucky made it to the Sweet 16.
With nearly every major contributor returning, this year’s Kentucky team is expecting big things. The Cats are ranked seventh in the country in the preseason, and Lilley is confident that she and the team are ready to meet those expectations.
“This upcoming year, expectations are really high, which I love and I think our team can handle it and live up to it,” Lilley said. “I think coming out of the gates faster than we did last year is huge.”
Lilley, a 5-11 native of Overland Park, Kansas, has been named a second-team All-American by the AVCA in each of her first two seasons in Lexington. She has 2,677 career assists, which is already 10th in school history, and third in the rally-scoring era. And in the process, her competitive spirit has rubbed off on her teammates.
UK head coach Craig Skinner sees the fire in Lilley on a daily basis.
“She’s another warrior on the floor and a competitor,” Skinner said. “She wants to win every drill, every set and every match. She leads by example with her focus in practice and video work.”
Lilley was named the AVCA Southeast Region Player of the Year last season, as well as being named All-SEC. And while she’s grateful for the awards, they are not what drives her.
“You can’t enjoy the goals without going through the process,” Lilley said. “I love getting better on a daily basis and I love seeing my teammates get better. We all have little things we are working on and during the matches, especially the big matches, you can see it all come together. Individually, I love getting better every single day. Awards, all of that, we all deserve because of how hard we work.”
Striving for perfection, or near perfection, on a daily basis is difficult, something that Lilley admits.
“It’s not easy, but I think that’s what separate the best from the average,” Lilley said. “For me personally, I’m always in touch with Craig on things that he sees on film, things I see on film, we’re always talking about it. Every single week, what can I check off my list that I want to get better at. If you always have mini goals to check off your list, that’s a huge accomplishment for me because at the end of the day, that all adds up. It’s really rewarding it, although it’s a grind, it’s always worth it.”
With Lilley striving to make herself and her teammates better every day, the sky is the limit for this year’s Cats.
