By LARRY VAUGHT
She not only was joining a national championship team, but she was going to be replacing the national player of the year.
University of Kentucky freshman setter Emma Grome admitted it was “definitely tough” early in the year when she took over the position Madison Lilley filled for four years and led UK to its first national championship in April.
“I think for myself and our team there has been so much growth this year that it has been incredible,” Grome said. “We have gotten a little bit better every day with our focus and consistency. We are getting to an elite level but I think we have more potential than we have shown so far.
“I’ve had to work on a lot of things to get to a level that I wanted to be at but one of the nice things about this team was everyone was super helpful to me. I worked on consistency with my hitters. It was a whole group of hitters I had never set before and we got extra reps all we could. I appreciate my team having confidence in me to help get me to where I am now.”
Where she is now is Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year as she joins Sarah Rumley (2006), Leah Edmond (2016), Madison Lilley (2017) and Alli Stumler (2018) as Cats to earn this honor. She was also named to the all-SEC team and SEC all-freshman team.
Kentucky (24-4, 17-1 SEC) will host first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament this weekend.
Grome feels she has established her own identity now. She has been a four-time SEC setter of the week and has 1,134 assists in 28 matches. She also has 215 digs and 51 blocks.
“I still have a lot of room to grow but I try to be myself out there and play the game I know how to play,” Grome said when asked about comparisons to Lilley. “I am blessed with the way the older players help me daily and give me both confidence and motivation.”
Grome admits she has always dreamed of playing in the NCAA Tournament.
“I have been playing for a long time. My goals were always to play at the most elite level,” she said. “Of course I watched last year when Kentucky won. I think we will also be super pumped, especially coming off this weekend (against Florida), to play in this year’s NCAA. We are just excited to get out there and get after it. It is going to be fun. Our goal is to win another championship. We won’t hide from that. We are going after it.”
Sweeping Florida to end regular-season play only added to UK’s confidence.
“You can always gain more confidence, so beating Florida helps us. Florida versus Kentucky every year is a big match. I think the fact that we came in with a sweep over such a good team two days in a row gives us a lot of confidence for NCAA play,” she said. “It shows us we can do this and get to where we want to get to in the next few weeks.”