Lindsey Vander Weide’s pre-game pep talk proved to have done wonders for Petro Gazz as they made quick work of Chery Tiggo to stay alive in the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference semifinals, Sunday night.
Vander Weide, who serves as the team’s skipper, shared during the post-match interview that she told the Angels to believe in themselves and be confident out on the court, which is two of the things that they lacked when they lost to Creamline last Thursday.
“I told the team before this game that we need to believe that we could see ourselves in the championship and be that winning team,” Vander Weide said after they eliminated the Crossovers from finals contention.
“I said that we need to play like that because I felt like in our first game against Creamline we weren’t playing like we could see ourselves at the end with the championship and I think our mindset kinda switched today. We knew what we needed to do and we took care of it and it felt great,” she added.
The 6-foot-3 product of University of Oregon delivered a game-high 18 points on 14 attacks and four service aces to power the Angels’ 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 sweep of the Crossovers that put them at 1-1 in the semis standings.
“As I said, I told them that we had to believe in ourselves but I don’t want us to be overconfident of course but we have been practicing for so long, we know our capabilities, and we just need to go out there and play volleyball,” said the 25-year-old outside spiker.
After taking care of Chery Tiggo, Vander Weide and the Angels will be taking on the undefeated Cignal – who was coming off a huge victory over Creamline – in their final semifinals game which will determine their fate in the tournament.
And Vander Weide is heading to that game full of confidence because of their past encounter that reached five games.
“I mean we took them to five, they’re a good team, they’re really dynamic, all-around and they have great players but it’s a team that we played well against in certain sets so we know how to compete against them. We just need to replicate what we did in those sets that we beat them.”
