Being the underdog every year has its advantages — like proving the competition wrong year in and year out.

That is the case for the Lindbergh High School varsity girls’ volleyball team, which has won a district title in the past two seasons.

“I feel like no matter what kind of year it is, we are always the underdog and I kind of like it that way,” head coach Johnna Wieter told the Call.

Even in a rebuilding year and being an underdog, Flyers fans can expect nothing less out of their 2013 squad.

“Since we had nine seniors graduate, our expectation, well, is always to play our best every game,” she said. “We have a couple young kids in the middle and two seniors that played last year really.

“So we are rebuilding, but we are just trying to figure out who’s going to play where. There’s nothing definite right now, so everyone is challenging each other for a spot, which is great.”

Rebuilding requires new players and veterans to help show them the way, according to Wieter.

For the Flyers, those veterans are Kaitlin Schwent and Melissa Costa.

“They’re going to be my captains, and we are expecting a lot out of them this year,” Wieter said of the pair. “They are both great leaders and very competitive, and just set a very good example for all the other girls on the team.”

Anna Graham, a junior who had significant playing time last season, also is expected to be a contributor for the Flyers this season.

A strong defense is one of the strengths of her girls, Wieter said, and she hopes that offense becomes a strength throughout the season.

“Really, our strength is always going to be defense, it really is defense and passing,” the Lindbergh coach said. “We are getting bigger as the years go by as far as height, so that’s a good thing.

The most valuable lesson the core girls learned last year was the Lindbergh way, according to Wieter.

“Maybe tradition now, because we have won districts the last two years. We’ve actually finished better than Lindbergh volleyball has ever finished,” she said. “So I think that they have that going for them, and even though we don’t have a lot of returning starters, we always have something.

“We may be a different kind of team this year, but we’re still going to be a decent team, scrappy, running a quick offense, those kinds of things.”