Petro Gazz import Lindsey Vander Weide. PVL Media Bureau
MANILA — Import Lindsey Vander Weide is having a full circle moment with the Petro Gazz Angels.
Vander Weide, who already has a championship with Petro Gazz in the 2022 PVL Reinforced Conference, relished Thursday her return trip to the finals, gaining a chance of running it back and win it all in the same tilt three years later.
The Angels survived Akari, 25-19, 25-17, 15-25, 22-25, 15-13, in the semifinal to cop the first final berth in the 2025 Reinforced tourney.
READ: Petro Gazz weathers Akari scare to secure PVL finals berth
"It's been awesome. I said if I ever came back to the Philippines, that it would be with Petra Gazz again, and I'm just so happy that I did," said Vander Weide.
"It's a lot of the same girls as it was back in 2022. And I said in the beginning, literally the first day I got here, I looked at Bang [Pineda], and I said, 'let's run it back,'" she added.
Familiar faces welcomed Vander Weider, as members of their 2022 championship run such as Myla Pablo, MJ Phillips, Bang Pineda, Djanel Cheng, and Jonah Sabete remained in the Petro Gazz roster.
But for Vander Weide, the team improved its depth in a three-year span, while acknowledging that anyone — from both the 2022 and 2025 rosters — could step up whenever needed.
"I would say it's a different lineup that we had back in 2022. But at the same time, those players who aren't in could step in at any moment," said Vander Weide.
"We have such good depth on our team and at the same time, such good experience. We have such experienced players on the bench. Like Myla [Pablo] coming in and scoring however many, 23, 26 points last game, just shows that we can take anybody off the bench and they can be a game changer," she added.
"I think that's kind of the difference from 2022. We kind of had to rock with who we had then. Now we have so much depth that it just feels even better."
Vander Weide also described how different the PVL competition was three years later.
"The level of volleyball, I would say, is higher than it was in 2022. Also, there are more teams, so you have to face a lot more teams to get there. I wouldn't say it was an easy road for us," she said.
"We were in the bottom half after the first part of the season, so that wasn't a comfortable spot to have to play with top teams going into playoffs. But I think it made us better having to play with top teams going into playoffs, so there it is."