A Full-Cycle Athletic Recruiting Firm
Lily Liu (Li Liu), known as “Xiaoli Jie” in Chinese parent communities, is the founder and chief mentor of MLS.LINK. MLS.LINK operates as MLS LINK LLC, registered and based in Connecticut, USA. It is an education consultancy focused on NCAA athletic recruiting, helping student-athletes and their families plan the recruiting path, academic preparation, NCAA eligibility, coach communication and college strategy, with particular depth in tennis — alongside US high school applications built around an athletic profile.
To unify competitive planning, academic strategy, mental resilience, and coach relationships into one complete, trustworthy system — helping every talented student-athlete find their own path to a top university.
To become the systemized platform families can trust for the long term — connecting world-class education resources across China, the US, and beyond, in service of athletic recruiting.
Most people know Lily through NCAA tennis recruiting. But my first career was as a stage director and one of China's earliest theater producers. What I actually did, every single time, was the same thing: find what's genuinely unique in a person, and help the right people see it.
Crossing into international education later felt less like a career change and more like an inevitable calling — what I did on stage, and what I do for every family now, are really the same craft: telling a young person's story to the right audience.
From 2012 to 2022 — a full decade — I led young people in Shanghai through youth theater training, international arts exchange, and early entrepreneurship programs. None of that decade was theoretical. Every program was built step by step with real kids.
What actually convinced me this path works is my own four children. They played three completely different sports — tennis, squash, and volleyball — yet all followed the same NCAA athletic recruiting pathway. Those who have already completed it went on to Harvard, Stanford and Cornell. This isn't theory. It happened in my own family.
That's exactly why, in 2022, I brought that conviction to the US and chose to focus on one thing: athletic recruiting. Not because it's easier — it's actually far more complex than pure academic admissions: you have to understand both how college admissions works and how each program's coaches actually recruit — miss either half, and a child can miss the window entirely. Most firms only understand one half. I had already tested both halves myself, four times over, before building a business around it.
In the five years since (2022–2026), an entire education ecosystem has grown around the "Lily Liu" IP — with partners drawn from stable, established education resources across China, the US, the UK, and Australia. It now spans US boarding school admissions, US undergraduate consulting, program development and matching, and daily support across 135 private communities — covering nearly every stage a US–China family encounters. Athletic recruiting remains our core focus — but what we're really building is a way for all of this scattered, world-class expertise to serve one goal: lifting every child toward their own future.
On this path through education, what's missing was never the method — it's someone willing to stay for the whole story, start to finish. That's what Lily and MLS.LINK have always been here to do.
Want to see exactly what we do?
Annual fees by grade, across two plans.<br><br><strong>Plan A — Full-Cycle Program</strong> (academics and tennis under one team): $5,000 in grades 6 and 7, $10,000 in grade 8, $15,000 in grade 9, and $20,000 each for grades 10 to 12. Grades 6–7 are light introductory years; the full program begins in grade 8.<br><br><strong>Plan B — Tennis Recruiting Track</strong> (academics limited to NCAA 16-core-course compliance, the rest handled by the family): Build the Player — $3,000 in grades 6 and 7, $5,000 in grades 8 and 9; Sell the Player — $15,000 each for grades 10 to 12.<br><br>Both plans are <strong>signed one year at a time</strong>: you pay for the current year at the start of it, and renew only after going through the year-end Milestone Confirmation item by item. Paying the remaining years up front earns <strong>8% off</strong> the total.<br><br>Separately: the entry point is an <strong>NCAA diagnostic (¥1,099)</strong>; the 52-week community runs ¥3,650/yr on its own; OYM mental-skills sessions are $150 each or $600 for five (10% off for signed families).<br><br>RMB figures are reference conversions; the amount payable is set at signing. Full fee table on the services page.
The earlier the better — families typically start anywhere from grade 3 to grade 10. The right timing depends on the individual, so a free assessment is the best first step.
Click "Free Assessment" on the homepage and fill out a short profile — you'll get an initial assessment within 48 hours.
Yes, we specialize specifically in NCAA tennis recruiting — built around the UTR system, coach networks, and tournament structure specific to tennis.
Log into the family portal ("Client Login" in the top right) — your full report, timeline, and booking options are all there.