ABOVE: Fairmont libero Nora Fitzgerald (24) celebrates after securing a point during the first set of Tuesday night’s contest against Luverne at Fairmont High School.

FAIRMONT – Taking part in her first season as head coach of the Fairmont High School volleyball team, Stacy Garbers didn’t know what to expect with some of the returning players in the Cardinal program.

However, one of the first things she noticed during this past summer and fall workouts was Nora Fitzgerald, a sophomore talent who dazzled Garbers and her coaching staff with her talents both on and off the volleyball court.

Outside of skilled play through different drills and scrimmage situations, the biggest impact Garbers saw from Fitzgerald was with her voice. With volleyball requiring individuals to use communication to move through different offensive and defensive rotations, it was no surprise that Garbers was impressed by the immediate vocal inflections she saw from the sophomore.

“In the first two weeks of practice, she was so vocal and helpful when talking to everybody on the court,” Garbers said. “Everybody on the floor needs to talk, and she does a fabulous job. Her mouth is always moving.

“Volleyball is a sport where you can’t be quiet,” Garbers said. “Things don’t go well when you are quiet on the floor. At the beginning of the year, we said, ‘We need you to be vocal, we need you to talk.’ One of our goals was to be the loudest team in the gym, and she’s [Fitzgerald] helping us get to that.”

Fitzgerald showed Garbers enough of her skillset to not only make the varsity lineup but also be called the libero for the upcoming fall season, a position that is not only relatively new for Fitzgerald over her young volleyball career but a spot on the court that proves to be detrimental for any sort of team success.

Introduced to the sport in the late 1990s, this position is not necessarily one that is trained for, but rather assigned to a different individual on a year-to-year basis, depending on the skills they possess.

“It’s mostly just setting my team up for success because it all starts with a pass, set, and then a hit,” Fitzgerald said. “The pass is very important … The coach picks who is the best passer or the best dressed to receive. I have played libero for my club team a little bit, but this is mostly my first time.”

While a drastic transition from the C-squad to the varsity level seems to be too much to handle from an outside perspective, this jump hasn’t been a problem for Fitzgerald. Her time with MC Elite, a club volleyball team located in Northrop, has given her more time to not only train, but also go against other high-level competition in the Midwest.

“I see really good players from all over the place, like Nebraska and Sioux City,” Fitzgerald said of her time with MC Elite. “So we have seen big teams and very good players, so that really helped me transition to varsity.”

Outside of competition, the biggest eye-opening experience so far for Fitzgerald has been the importance of every game. Bigger crowds and louder student sections have heightened the pressure to make it seem like every point matters, putting more and more attention on every player on the court.

Fitzgerald remembers specifically her first game of the season against Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, carrying a lot of early nerves and jitters before the ball was even put in play.

Helping her play with confidence has been the upperclassmen leadership found on the Cardinal roster. Talking Fitzgerald through any nerves and preaching her to compete with a “play to win,” mindset, the other Cardinal teammates have been detrimental to her success this season.

“My teammates helped me a lot too, telling me that it’s okay to make mistakes because we will all get better from it,” Fitzgerald said. “They talk me through it and are always there for me 100%.”

Regardless of what happens this year, 2025 has been a major step in development for Fitzgerald, placing herself to be a key piece of the Cardinal volleyball program for the next two seasons.

Going through an entire varsity season as a sophomore, grinding through the rigorous schedule, and getting a sense of what to expect can only be beneficial. As Garbers looks to continue to build her team in a positive manner, having Fitzgerald in the center of things makes a coach’s life all the easier.

“As she [Fitzgerald] grows and develops as a player, gets a little older, gets more confidence and just continues to play, in two years when she is a senior she can definitely dominate the floor as a libero,” Garbers said. “I look for her to continue to be a leader and just continue to grow and get better.”