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A tougher playing field meets Lindsey Vander Weide in her return to the PVL with Petro Gazz.
As one of two returning imports, Lindsey Vander Weide is already familiar with the level of competition in the Premier Volleyball League.
Along with Jelena Cvijovic of the Galeries Tower Highrisers, Vander Weide is running it back for the 2025 Reinforced Conference with the Petro Gazz Angels — the same team that she led to a championship in 2022.
While Petro Gazz still features many of her former teammates, Vander Weide pointed out that the PVL today is a far different league from the one that she competed in three years ago.
“It’s great! I’m so happy to be back with Petro Gazz and to be with a bunch of girls that I have already played with,” she told The GAME in an exclusive interview.
“I will say that the level is definitely higher from even the locals to the imports! It’s just a different level, I think it’s a lot more competitive and I think we have to work twice as hard as I had to work in 2022 but it’s been incredibly fun.”
Three years after Vander Weide’s PVL debut, top collegiate stars have since entered the league, while the succeeding Rookie Draft system allowed up-and-coming teams to have top picks like Thea Gagate and Bella Belen as their franchise cornerstones.
A good chunk of the national team core also comes from the PVL, bringing with them fresh new perspectives and confidence after international tournament windows.
“The level of play has just gone up in all aspects! There’s been girls coming out of college that are adding to the league, and there’s a bunch of new faces that I’m seeing. There are also girls that likely weren’t playing when I was last here, but now they are. So it’s just a super high level and it’s fun to play, but it definitely makes it harder,” Vander Weide said.
Vander Weide herself has honed her craft in Puerto Rico with Chanjas de Naranjito and in the United States’ Major League Volleyball after her PVL debut. But now that she’s seen a higher level of play in the Philippines, the American spiker isn’t leaving any room for complacency.
By the time of the interview, Vander Weide and Petro Gazz were coming off a five-set win against the retooled Akari Chargers, who nearly pulled off a reverse sweep before running out of steam in the fifth set.
“A hundred percent, it’s super motivating because of how hard we’ve had to work in order to win; these teams are not just rolling over and allowing us to beat them in three cleanly. We could’ve beat them in three but they decided to take us to five, so it was really good to win,” said Vander Weide.
Now that the 2025 Reinforced Conference is in full swing, Lindsey Vander Weide knows that she needs to become a crafty and more versatile attacker to keep up with the league’s rising level of play.
“I think I need to be a little bit more diverse in my attacks; I think I need to work better with the setters when running plays and I think we’ve been a little bit one dimensional; we have a lot more to show, but I’m okay with just not showing it right now and showing it for the second half of the season.”
Images courtesy of the Premier Volleyball League.