GOING PRO
Benton’s Lindberg starting new journey
BENTON – It’s pretty rare that a high school volleyball player, let alone a college player, from the United States has the opportunity to play professional volleyball, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen for a former Benton Lady Panther. Taylor Lindberg, spending her past four years playing for the University of Arkansas Little Rock Trojans, will fulfill her dream of playing professionally as she will head overseas to Finland to play for Liigaploki Pihtipudas beginning in October. She is the first
Lady Panther to play professionally.
“It’s been my goal since I was little, so I’m really happy I’m getting to do this,” Lindberg said. “Getting to experience a different culture.”
Lindberg, who will be a setter for Liigaploki, has been an all-around player throughout her volleyball career. In fact, she led the Lady Panthers with 172 kills her senior season, while also accumulating
215 assists, 38 aces and 33 blocks, all good for second that season, earning Allstate honors and being named the AAA All-star game’s Most Outstanding Player.
“There’s no one that loves the sport more than she does,” Benton Coach Brandy Chumley said.
“She’s lived it, eats, breaths volleyball as long as I’ve known her. She works so hard. Just for her to be able to do something like this, she deserves it. She’s put a lot of time and effort in.”
Chumley expanded on Lindberg being an allaround asset to the Lady Panthers.
“She set for us, played the middle and right side,” Chumley said. “She’s so long, she’s got the long arms, the long reach and she can jump out of the gym. She’s super smart, too, about the game. Her setting choices were always smart and she’s just always in the right position.”
Trojans Coach Van Compton expanded on Lindberg’s hops.
“She can dunk a tennis ball,” Compton said. “There’s not a lot of girls that can dunk a tennis ball. Her dad jumped real well.”
It was her Lindberg’s father, Scott Lindberg, who gave Taylor all the volleyball acumen she would ever need, as he played overseas professionally, as well. .
“He was a part of our men’s national team for a little bit and then he went over to play professional volleyball in Italy for eight years,” Taylor said. “He was over there from ‘78 to ‘86.
“I’ve been around volleyball my whole life because my dad used to play overseas and my sister (Ty) went to Benton, but I didn’t start playing competitively until I was 12 years old, and that was with Little Rock Juniors.”
The 5-foot-10 Lindberg credits her dad and her strength and conditioning coach at UALR, John Barren, for being able to jump so high.
“I can touch the highest on the team, thanks to my dad,” she said. “Thanks to Scotty for his jumps. I give a lot of credit to our strength and conditioning Coach Barren because he really got us in shape. I remember when I first came he didn’t think I was going to do very much because I was so skinny, but I’ve put on a lot of muscle and really excelled.”
Excel she did as she went from being that “skinny” freshman to becoming second all-time in assists for the Trojans as she finished with 3,065 career assists in her four seasons, leading UALR in assists her past three years, and was second in dishes her freshman year.
Not only that, she was the first UALR player to record a triple double (having 10 or more kills, assists and digs in a match), and she finished with four of those.
Strictly a setter her first three years as a Trojan, Lindberg was thrust into a different situation her senior season due to necessity.
“I’ve been an all-around player for them every time I’ve been on the court,” she said. “This year, I kind of stepped into a different role because we decided to run a 6-2 because we needed some more hitters, so coach asked me if I could hit some for us, and I’m not going to say no. It actually worked out pretty well. I recorded our first triple double at UALR and I was top 10 in the nation for that, so it was fun getting some of those under my belt. It was really fun stepping into that role for the team, just helping out how I could.”
Her new role led to Lindberg being the first UALR player to finish with 200 kills (218), 700 assists (799) and 200 digs (251) in the same season, as she also led the Trojans with 38 aces and added 71 blocks.
“We saw early on that she was going to be a good volleyball player, and of course we recruited her,” Compton said. “She played four years and she was great player for us. She played setter, hitter, she was the type of player who would play anywhere and did it very much for the team. She was a team player.
“She’s smart, she athletic, she’s driven, she just perseveres. Her work ethic is impeccable. She knows as much as coaches what she needs to work on and she’s willing to do what it takes.”
It’s those smarts that has led Lindberg in earning her bachelor’s degree in biology in just three years, and she’s just a couple classes shy of getting her master’s in exercise science.
“She was also very good in the classroom,” Compton said. “She was a very, very good student, very driven. She has her bachelor’s after three years and her master’s after four. She majored in biology and people don’t realize the nights she probably stayed up and studied all night and came to practice the next day for two or three hours.
“To me, she was the complete student-athlete. She was the captain of the team her senior year. She coached our Junior Olympic program all four years she was at Little Rock. Her senior year, she ended up coaching the national team and that’s usually coaches that have been with us for years end up coaching the national team.”
Lindberg plans on wrapping up her master’s while overseas.
“While I’m in Finland, I’ll be taking one online class, so that will be good because I’ll have something to do besides volleyball,” she said. “In December I’ll have my complete degree. I’m really thankful for the coaches providing summer school for us.
“I also appreciate Benton for the AP classes because I came in with having over 30 hours as a freshman. I was a sophomore going in because I graduated in my junior year with my degree.”
Lindberg has come a long way since she started playing competitively at 12, coming just short of a high school state championship and being a heavy contributor in college.
“At Benton, I think about maybe every other week, was the state championship we lost by two points,” Lindberg said of the 2013 state title match. “That comes to my mind a lot, just thinking about how I’ve grown as a player since then with confidence and selfesteem.
“And at UALR, I remember just coming in being a little freshman and having to really help out the team stepping into different roles. I’m just really appreciative to all the coaches I’ve had, especially Coach Compton, Coach Todd (Bourdo) and Thiago Lopes just for everything the’ve done and provided me with the opportunity at UALR. Without them, I don’t know necessarily where I would have ended up.”
But, now it’s off to a different country to play professionally. Lindberg explained how she became acquainted with Liigaploki Pihtipudas.
“Usually whenever players are looking to go overseas they go through an agent,” she said. “My case was a little unique in the fact that my teammate had told me to get in contact with a player/coach in Sweden. I gave her my information and she wasn’t sure yet if she was leaving the team or not, so I was just trying to aim around that area. It was a little bit of a lower league. This coach that I have now, Alessandro Lodi, he actually contacted her regarding a few positions and setter was one of them. She referred me to him and he emailed me, added me on Facebook and everything just kind of fell into place from there. He had just been announced as the new coach of Liigaploki. I went directly through the head coach, which is unusual.”
According to Lindberg, she will be playing tough competition right away in first professional experience.
“There’s three top leagues in the world - Italy, Turkey and Brazil has a really strong league, too, and within those you have different series,” she explained. “A-1 would be comparable to a DI (in college), A-2 to DII, even though the level overseas is much more competitive than it is here because you have professionals.
“The league I’m going to is the A-1 series in Finland. Dad said it’s a pretty good league for a first-year, and a pretty good league overall because a few of the countries in the surrounding areas have A-1 series, but it’s not as built up like Italy or Finland or anywhere. It’ll be interesting.”
Though Lindberg has never been to Finland, she has traveled overseas a few times, so the culture shock shouldn’t affect her, though Finland will be a completely different experience.
“I’ve been to Bosnia and Italy twice, and then I just got back from Brazil for a visit just hanging out trying to relax a little bit before I go,” she said. “I’ve never been to Finland, but I know it’s really cold. It’s five hours north of the capital (Helsinki), so it’s going to be freezing, but I’m excited to try it out. I think we’re about halfway up to the top of the country, so I think when I get over there when I leave at the end of July, it’s going to be about 22 hours of sunlight. It’s going to be interesting.
“I’ve been trying to learn a few words. I’m in an online class now trying to finish my master’s, so whenever July hits I’m going to really dive into trying to learn some phrases in Finnish. I don’t really have any expectations going over there. I know I want to get better and learn as much as I can.”
It also helped that Lindberg was on a UALR team that had eight players from different countries in just her senior season, not to mention more throughout her college career.
“I got learn from so many foreigners,” Lindberg said. “My best friend is from Romania and I just got to learn about so many different cultures. I don’t think a lot of girls can say that after their four years. I’m really thankful for that.”
Though spending a month in Italy, her time in Finland will no doubt be her longest time away from home.
“That was my first experience with culture shock because I was over there for a month,” Lindberg said of Italy, “but when I go to Finland it’s going to be completely different because I go there at the end of July and don’t come back until the end of April.”
Lindberg said when her professional volleyball career ends, she plans to either be a physician’s assistant or possibly a college coach, but mentioned, “Really, I don’t have anything set and that’s not usual for me because I like to have everything in order.”
It’s that unusual for Lindberg “up-in-the-air” aspect she has thought about as far as how long her professional career will go on.
“That’s a question I’ve thought about a lot,” she said. “I think I would like to do it for more than one year, but I could go over there and not like it. I don’t see that happening, but there’s always a chance. Or I could go over there and absolutely fall in love with it. As long as I enjoy doing it and I see myself getting a benefit from it. It’s how much my mind and body will let me.
“I’m just trying to take it one step at a time. I have this one year set and I’ll figure it out after.”
There’s no doubt her former coaches expect Lindberg to excel professionally.
“We’re just so proud of her,” Chumley said. “To be associated with her and for her to be a part of our program and do as well as she has, she’s very deserving because she has always worked so hard.”
“I think it’s always been her lifelong dream, and her dad’s, to play professional ball,” Compton added. “Her dreams have come true and I think she will take this and enjoy every moment of it. She’ll be an asset to that team.”