To the casual fan, the glory in volleyball lies in the powerful spikes or the diving defensive digs. You would be hard-pressed to find a more selfless position in sports than a setter in volleyball, whose sole purpose is to set up teammates for spikes.
But sophomore Lily Phillips embraces this role rather than clamor for glory, improving her team as a whole.
Even still, when she gets the chances, Phillips jokes that she tries to get her own spikes in.
"You get used to it," a laughing Phillips said. "When I first started setting, it was tough because I was a hitter up until I was a sophomore in high school. It's hard because you want all the glory and you want to be a hitter, but once you get to this age group, it's completely selfless."
Even so, Phillips was managing to get glory this season. That is, until the Phoenix native badly sprained her ankle in the Fairfield Inn Jefferson Cup against the College of Charleston Friday night. The results of an X-ray could not be confirmed, but Phillips will be out at least through next Tuesday's match against Virginia Commonwealth University.
Before her injury, Phillips was putting up gaudy numbers, averaging a robust 9.06 assists per game with two double-doubles thus far. Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said that even her stats did not fully indicate how well Phillips was playing.
"She puts up a great ball 98 percent of the time," Aldrich Shelton said before Phillips went down. "She's not getting a lot of assists right now because our hitters aren't putting it away right now. She's been setting really well, but we need to help her out with her stats by putting the ball down."
Phillips earned recognition for her strong play at the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational earlier this season, making the All-Tournament team as she averaged over eight assists per game there. Last season, Phillips was named to the All-ACC freshman team, averaging 6.49 assists per game on the year.
That feat grows more impressive considering she came in last season with mononucleosis and sprained her ankle, in addition to playing through several nagging injuries. She ended up missing only the first four matches, but never was really healthy.
"It was a rough year," Phillips said. "I don't really look at what I've done this far as improvement per se, as when I came into the University. [Last year], I wasn't jumping as high or moving as fast. I felt awful all last season."
In fact, injury has unfortunately plagued the standout sophomore through much of her career. After Student Sports Magazine tabbed her as a preseason All-American her senior year, an injury forced the 5-foot-11 Phillips to miss her entire senior year. Still, she committed to Virginia in November -- Aldrich Shelton considered her one of the top five setters in the country.
She decided to come to Charlottesville for academic reasons, and plans to attend law school after graduating, eyeing a major in either sociology or anthropology. On a purely volleyball basis, her decision to come here was somewhat surprising.
"Growing up around West Coast volleyball is a different game," Phillips said. "Girls are bigger, stronger, and it's a bigger sport out there. The schools that are big on volleyball are not good academic schools. I can always come back to the West Coast, that's any easy move, and I wanted to have something else."
Yet her seemingly unwavering focus on the court does not mean she doesn't have her fun off the court. An X-Games enthusiast, Phillips also is a member of Delta Zeta sorority. She spent this past summer doing "absolutely nothing," she said, with a widening smile.
Her demeanor off the court is much like the way she is while playing.
"I'm aggressive," the All-ACC academic team selection said. "I'm an honest person and I'm not going to beat around the bush. I like things my way and I'm upfront and I have fun."
If things go Phillips' way for Virginia volleyball, it should lead to a bright future for a team with only two seniors. Phillips does not expect to play past college, but plans to hold on to the sport beyond her competitive days.
"Volleyball will be a part of my life and a part of my kids' lives," she said.
For now, she will try to heal as quickly as possible to come back to a Virginia team that did not have a backup setter. Freshman outside hitter Kristin Chaney has assumed those duties despite never setting before.
Lily's injury "was really tough because it's kind of our biggest nightmare," junior libero Whitney Ashcraft said."We've feared that ever since we went down to having one setter, but we realize that we can either feel sorry for ourselves or we can pick it up and prove how good of a team we really are."
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