Madison Lilley continues to add prestigious honors after helping UK win the volleyball national championship. (NCAA Photo)
Kim Lilley can still remember when her daughter, Madison, was starting to show signs that she could be a special volleyball player.
“The frustrating part in the early years was that no one really passed her very good balls. Looking back, that made her become good at turning it into a playable ball,” Kim Lilley said. “While it was frustrating to watch that as she was growing up, it made her the player she is today to where she can get to the ball and make it worth something for a teammate like no one else can.”
No they cannot. That’s why Lilley was the American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Year and helped UK win the national championship. Now the All-American setter has won the 2021 Honda Award for the sport of volleyball. She’s the first UK athlete to win that award for the most outstanding player in a sport.
Think about that. The first UK athlete to win an award that has been presented annually for 45 years to women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports.
“She has accomplished so much during her career and especially this magical season ending with player of the year honors and the national championship. To cap it off with the Honda award is amazing and all of us here at Kentucky are so proud of the way she has represented UK, Lexington, and the state,” UK volleyball coach Craig Skinner said in a release from UK.
Lilley is now a finalist along with winners in the other sports for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2021 Honda Cup. The winner will be named on the CBS Sports Network June 28 at 9 p.m. EST.
Kentucky has been blessed with several superior female athletes in recent years but Lilley led her team to a national title. In the championship win over Texas, she had 53 assists and a career-high 19 digs. She averaged 13.8 assists per set, had six aces in UK’s five matches and was second on the team with 3.35 digs per set.
Lilley credited UK Athletics for helping give her the opportunity to understand what it took to win a championship.
“I feel empowered, but also motivated to continue pushing and advocating for women’s collegiate athletics. As referenced by the hundreds of thousands of people that watched the 2020 Volleyball Championship, this only motivates me, even more, to continue to drive home that women’s sports are worthy of time and investments by all entities,” Lilley said in a release from UK.
“I will continue to zealously push hard for the sport of volleyball to grow to unprecedented heights and take our game, and women’s athletics as a whole, to the next level.”
