Lily Eidukaityte Taking Volleyball Dreams, Perseverance to College Level
When she goes to bed, Lily Eidukaityte is thinking about volleyball. A new day is met by immediate thoughts of how best to slam a spike down on her opponent. The Southington senior has become engulfed in a sport she says gave her a second family. Which is why every waking moment spent by Eidukaityte is focused on becoming the best player and teammate she can be.
The senior’s efforts have earned her an opportunity to play at the collegiate level with Le Moyne College. First, however, Eidukaityte must finish out her last season with the Blue Knights. During her final campaign, the outside hitter and her teammates have been living by a mantra of, “just play with everything you have.” When Eidukaityte’s last set with Southington arrives, she doesn’t want any regrets over what could’ve been.
“I want us to go as far as we can. Leave no regrets on the court,” Eidukaityte said. “Even if we take a loss, if we played to our best ability, pushed each other, trusted each other, that’s growth. We want to grow as a team every day, every practice. We really have been doing that. Anything is possible if we just keep growing every day.
What Eidukaityte has now is a confidence that has been fostered through her years of playing volleyball. She isn’t afraid of being aggressive and is confident she can do everything on the court if she sets her mind to it.
The sport has become a defining factor of Eidukaityte’s life. When the serve goes up, she’s in outside hitter mode. The world sees a side of her that the senior is proud to present.
“Volleyball is almost like my second personality,” Eidukaityte said. “I have me, ‘normal me,’ and then there’s like a ‘competitive me.’ It builds me as a person knowing there is something about me everyone knows. Everyone knows, ‘Lily, she plays volleyball.’ It has just always been with me.”
While volleyball may have been fun originally for Eidukaityte, it took time for it to become second nature. That journey has helped mold everything the senior is on and off the court.
Eidukaityte Becomes Immersed in Volleyball
In the summer heading into sixth grade, Eidukaityte decided to give volleyball a try. She had always been athletic, competing in softball and gymnastics among other activities. But Eidukaityte wanted a sport that truly matched her interests.
At first, she attended clinics to learn the fundamentals of volleyball. Eidukaityte enjoyed the fact that it was a team sport as well as individual. During that sixth grade season, she joined the John F. Kennedy middle school team. There, she met a new coach and teammates, a meeting that only reaffirmed Eidukaityte’s conviction that she had found her sport.
Playing at JFK for three years, the outside hitter worked under head coach Lisa Volpe. Eidukaityte said she fell in love with the sport because of her and that the coach really helped her understand everything volleyball could offer. The fundamentals were beginning to click, and a quest to improve had officially begun.
“Everyone starts off somewhere,” Eidukaityte said. “I wasn’t that good at it, and I really wanted to get good at it. I didn’t like not being good at something. So I pushed myself to get good at it. It just grew on me.”
Along with playing at Kennedy, Eidukaityte competed at the club level with New England Shock before joining CT Juniors. Prior to entering high school, volleyball had already made its way to Eidukaityte’s core. Her thoughts soon became occupied with the idea of sharing the court with teammates she valued.
“Volleyball was something I’d be excited to talk to my friends about,” Eidukaityte said. “It was something I could look forward to every day. It made waking up every morning easier because I knew I had something to look forward to. My teammates, and going to practice every day, made my day better.”
As a freshman, Eidukaityte officially joined the Blue Knights. She had been prepared for the changes that would come from being a high school student-athlete. But she says the transition was made much easier having teammates like Meredith Barry by her side.
Competing with the JV team, Eidukaityte learned a whole new level of volleyball from coach Lindsey Witte. She also began to see the effort it takes to succeed at the varsity level.
“The level of competition was insane. It was such a different jump,” Eidukaityte said. “But my teammates were all amazing and we all supported each other. I got so much better at everything. Serve receive was always harder for me. I remember my coach showed me the ways on how to be better, more consistent. I learned a whole different way to pass. It was a new mindset. That mindset really helped.”
Surging Into Senior Year
As a sophomore, Eidukaityte made the jump to the varsity team. She had plenty of experience under her belt at that point. But she was competing alongside the best Southington had to offer. The outside hitter’s level of play needed to improve accordingly.
“My sophomore year I was probably the most nervous to be on the court,” Eidukaityte said. “I was playing with seniors. I’m playing with girls who I felt were much better than me. I wanted to get to the point that they were at. It helped me see what I wanted to do.”
Working in Eidukaityte’s favor is her love for practice. She attended every session she could possibly make. The more reps, the better. Between playing volleyball and being alongside her teammates, practice “took stress out of her day.”
Eidukaityte was searching for more consistency and began working out more to gain extra strength. As an all-around outside hitter, she has to play in the front and back of the formation. That requires a high level of focus in numerous areas of volleyball. But versatility is a trait Eidukaityte takes pride in, one she has been trying to hone over her time with the Blue Knights.
“It’s all about consistency,” Eidukaityte said. “There’s a lot of balance with what I have to do. It's a different kind of perspective as an outside. You kind of have to do everything. You have to be there for assists, you have to know how to set. You have to know every aspect of volleyball as an outside hitter. It’s definitely a lot of working knowing your job. I love my position.”
As a junior, it became clear that all the hard work had paid off. Eidukaityte was named to the All-Central Connecticut Conference team. There was always an internal confidence in her status as a player. But the accolade proved that the conference at large had seen Eidukaityte’s growth.
“I see my talent, I was really proud of myself for getting that," the outside hitter said. “It wasn’t a label. It just showed that other coaches see it too, they see my potential. The fact that other coaches saw it, that I could make it, gave me confidence.”
Heading into her senior season, head coach Richard Heitz laid down a challenge. He knew Eidukaityte had big dreams when it came to volleyball. To reach them, her physical strength would be put to the test. Not a problem for the Blue Knights star, who ranks second in Class LL with 229 kills as of this writing, according to MaxPreps. She also set a Southington high school record with 37 kills against Maloney. Eidukaityte took Heitz’s challenge head on and has exceeded the head coach’s expectations.
“One of the discussions we had with her was, if you really want to get where you want to get, you got to get physically stronger,” Heitz said. “Lily did that. She is physically stronger this year and she looks more dominant from the outside.”
As she looks back on her four-year Southington run, Eidukaityte sees a “completely different player.” She’s prepared to take charge and make a play when necessary. At the same time, the senior has learned what it means to be a good teammate. All that practice, all that drive led Eidukaityte to clarify what success means to her.
“I’m a much more aggressive player. I’m playing with a lot more confidence,” Eidukaityte said. “In hard times, I want to produce for my team. My team trusts me and I trust my teammates as well. I love my team this year, this has been one of the best teams I’ve been on relationship wise. We’re all putting in 100 percent in practice. We’re all all-in this year and we really want to see something come of that.”
“From freshman year to now I’ve definitely become a better teammate,” she continued. “You grow. When you’re younger you’re just not the same when you’re older. You see different things. I’ve definitely grown in almost every aspect.”
Eidukaitye’s Volleyball Dreams Continue On in College
At Le Moyne, the graduating senior will be majoring in business management. Playing at the college level, “was always a goal and a hope,” for Eidukaityte. But actually seeing that dream come to fruition put her volleyball career in an even broader perspective.
It was a stressful process, Eidukaityte admits. But her mother Kristina was by her side every step of the way, helping guide the senior’s selection. In the end, “whatever was meant to happen, happened.” The volleyball standout has found a new home to continue mastering her craft.
She knows collegiate volleyball will once again test her ability to adapt. But if playing for Southington taught Eidukaityte anything, it’s the value of hard work and competing as a collective unit. Her “play with everything you have” mantra will be making the trip to Le Moyne.
“Every day you want to become a better player,” Eidukaityte said. “When I get to college I don’t want to just stop improving. I want to be the best player I can be in college, I want to be there for my teammates. I value relationships a lot, and I’ll value them in college as well.”
Eidukaityte’s run with the Blue Knights has allowed her to grow and compete in a sport that is an inseparable part of her. It also gave her a chance to play alongside girls she will cherish long after graduation. Dreams of spikes still dash around Eidukaityte’s mind. But to the senior, the only thing sweeter has been sharing her passion with her Southington family.
“It’s a blessing, honestly,” Eidukaityte said of being a volleyball player. “I’m here, I’m playing, I’m going to college for it. I have a family from a sport. The girls I play with, they’re my family. It’s somewhere I go and I’m happy to be there. Everybody has a bad practice. I know if I have a bad practice, I know the girls will be like, ‘It’s okay, we can go get ice cream or something.’ The fact it has given me a family is just amazing.”
