Sophomore opposite hitter Samantha Patterson finished her first full season on the women's volleyball team as a dependable reserve in the rotation, who played on both the front and the back line for the Lancers.

In 56 sets, Patterson amassed 24 kills and she became a spark off the bench in the last two weeks of the campaign with seven kills in a 3-2 loss against Wentworth, three kills and a trio of digs in a 3-1 loss to Western New England and four kills in a 3-0 first-round MASCAC quarterfinal win over Salem State.

Patterson had an interesting story to tell as she came to Worcester State without even attending high school. We sat down with her recently as she talked about how she was homeschooled, the women's volleyball team and her interest in photography.

What is your hometown and major?

I am currently living at my 21st official address (laughs). I was born in South Dakota, but I consider myself from North Carolina, where I lived for 11 years. I am a communications major with a concentration in photography.

Why did you decide to come to Worcester State?

After I decided to move back to South Dakota, I enrolled at Black Hills State University, which is an hour away from Mount Rushmore. I wanted to look for a school that had photograhy as a major and that drew me to Fitchburg State, which has a strong concentration. Once I moved to Massachusetts, I decided it was best to take last winter off.

When I was looking at enrolling at schools again, I noticed that Worcester State had a volleyball team and a communications major. I wanted to get back into playing volleyball again, so I contacted head coach Bernie Chase and I've enjoyed playing on the team this fall.

You said you had an interest in photography. What kind of photos do you like to shoot?

I've been into photography for the last eight years. I like artsy kind of landscapes especially abandoned buildings, broken windows and things like that.

I like taking a lot of my photos with film rather than with a digital camera. I think that the filmstrip picks up more and the photos are more crisp. I work in the darkroom on campus, which is great for developing my film photography skills.

I also have an internship with Matt Wright, the schools campus photographer.

How did you get into college after being homeschooled for most of your primary education?

I was one of 7,500 homeschooled students in the state of North Carolina. While living with my mom and sister on Fort Bragg, I was able to study off two different curriculums and I fulfilled the regular requirements of my education with state tests.

Being homeschoooled allowed me to study at my own pace, and when I got older, gave me the flexibility of working a part-time job. I was able to budget my time, evaluate my skills appropriately and breeze through the subjects I knew, but it also gave me the chance to take my time on a subject like math, where I have trouble and needed help from my sister.

The experience really helped prepare me for college, much more so than I would if I had been in a regular school setting.

What sparked your interest in playing volleyball?

In addition to the regular public and private teams in North Carolina, there were other sports that were made up of local homeschooled students, from around the state. They had soccer, basketball, softball and any of the other sports you'd play in high school.

I originally started playing soccer growing up. I needed an activity in the off-season, so I decided to give volleyball a try. After joining the team, their best player got injured and I jumped into her spot and started every game from that point forward and was eventually selected team captain.

I really enjoyed the team atmosphere in playing a sport like volleyball. I liked being close with my teammates, I like how faced paced the games are and how you have to always play smart if you want to win games.

Our schedule consisted of other local private and christian schools. My team was pretty good also traveled and played in national high school tournaments.

They also had homeschooled club activities too. I was a member of the yearbook club and that is what started my interest in photography.

Your team made a great run in the MASCAC Tournament, defeating Salem State 3-0 in the quarterfinals before dropping a marathon 3-2 match to Westfield State in the semifinals. Tell me about your squads strong finish to the end of the season in the league playoffs.

We knew what we had to do against Salem State. We went in focused, played technically well and came out on top. We used that game to mentally prepare for going into what we knew would be a very tough game against Westfield.

Going into the game against Westfield, we had a lot of talks together as a team. We were focusing on playing the way we knew how to. The game itself was so close; the points were so back and forth and the entire game was a nailbiter. It was one of the best games we had played all season. This was the game we had been waiting for and this was the one where we finally came together and played as a TRUE team. 

Although it was sad not to continue on to the championship, I am beyond proud of my team; we did amazing. I cannot wait to bring the same attitude into next year, where we return a lot of veterans. I am confident that will take it all.

Action Photo Courtesy of Worcester State Office of Public Relations and Marketing 

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