All-District Volleyball MVP: Vander Weide led Pitman to new heights

At the beginning of the season, when teams get together to put their goals on a chalkboard, the Pitman High volleyball team had a pretty good idea of how good it could be.

The Pride fully expected to breeze through Central California Conference play, and hoped to make a deep run into the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

And after that ...

“I didn’t think about state at all,” said senior outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide, the Bee’s 2014 volleyball player of the year, who will he headed to the University of Oregon on a volleyball scholarship.

“I knew we’d do pretty good in league and go far in the postseason. But honestly I didn’t even know what came after sections. As we went through the season, we got a lot better and worked really hard to get there and because of that we deserved it.”

Vander Weide and her Pitman teammates – including Fresno State commit Maddy Halteman, a setter – certainly can be forgiven for not knowing there was a full tournament out there for teams who perform very well at the section level. After all, no Division I school in the Stanislaus District had won a Sac-Joaquin Section title since Merced in 1981, and none ever had reached a state final.

So when did it dawn on the Pride that a march to a NorCal regional title and a berth in the state final was within their grasp?

“For me, I realized it at the section final,” Pitman coach Kristen Pontes-Christian said. “It was knowing that we could play against teams of that caliber, go five games and come back to win. When we got the No. 1 seed in NorCal, it gave us quite a boost of confidence, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Our mindset stayed at playing one game at a time, even in that first playoff against Oakland Tech.”

The Pride swept Oakland Tech and San Ramon Valley to reach the NorCal final, then rallied from 2-1 to beat Menlo-Atherton for the NorCal title. The fact that Pitman’s amazing 44-2 season ended in a 25-23, 25-18, 25-21 loss to Redondo Union the state final did nothing to take away from the accomplishments of the group.

“Going into the game I was a little nervous, but a lot less than I thought I was going to be,” Vander Weide said. “I was excited because it was our last game, and even if we lost I knew we’d play our hardest. I wish I could redo the game because I know we can play better, but it was really fun just being there, knowing that Pitman got that far.

“At the end of the game it hit me that it was all over ... high school volleyball was over for me forever. I was sad, but I’m really ready to go to college.”

It will be interesting to see how Vander Weide’s college career plays out at Oregon. She’s one of three 6-feet, 3-inch outside hitters in this year’s Ducks’ recruiting class, which might be a concern if Vander Weide were only adept at the kill. But Vander Weide not only led the Pride with 471 kills, she also led them with 260 digs and handled a team-high 333 serves.

“She can play all the way around the court so well,” Pontes-Christian said. “She can play defense and she can dig like a 5-foot libero. She covers so much space and she’s a leader on the court.”

Despite losing only 16 games all season, there were times the Pride needed that on-court leadership. One came Nov. 4, in the final tune-up before the playoffs, when Sonora built a 2-1 lead on Pitman before the Pride rallied on its home court to beat the eventual Division IV state champions.

“We play with a lot of the Sonora team in our clubs, so I knew that it was going to be a tough game, but we didn’t want that on our record as a loss,” Vander Weide said. “They looked good warning up, but as soon as they started playing I was getting worried, and then we went to five games. Sonora was so quick and so scrappy everywhere and that made them really hard to handle.”

Vander Weide says she has a good grasp of what to expect at the college level, and she can’t wait to get to Eugene.

“I’m nervous, but I’m ready,” she said. “A lot of the girls there are already my friends. But I know I’ll have to play at a whole new level and will have to push myself harder than I’ve ever pushed before. But I’m ready and excited for that.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "All-District Volleyball MVP: Vander Weide led Pitman to new heights."