ABOVE: Fairmont volleyball player Lilly Meyers spikes the ball over the stretched-out hands of a Jackson County Central outside hitter during their meeting on Sept. 30 in the Fairmont High School campus gymnasium.

FAIRMONT – Earlier this fall, on Aug 26, the Fairmont Cardinals volleyball team traveled to Pipestone Area to take on the Arrows in what was the second and first games of the 2025 season for each respective team.

After falling behind two sets to one, Pipestone Area won the remaining sets, 27-25 and 15-13, to secure the win. Now, both schools are set to face each other in the opening round of the 2025 Section 3AA, South Subsection Volleyball Tournament at 7 p.m. this Friday at Pipestone Area High School.

With 21 games under their belt since the initial match, Fairmont head coach Stacy Garbers knows this week’s matchup has a chance to come down to the wire yet again.

“It should give the girls a drive to want to beat them now because we lost such a close game,” Garbers said. “If we show up, play as a team, and play our game, I think we can come out on top.”

The sixth-seeded Cardinals finished the 2025 regular season with a 7-16 record, picking up three more wins than last year’s campaign. However, when discussing Garbers, this output fails to demonstrate just how competitive her team has been all season long.

Fairmont has lost three games this season in five sets this year. On top of that, multiple times this fall, the Cardinals got out to an initial one-set lead before ultimately losing the contest in the end, failing to sustain momentum as the match slowly progressed.

Garbers says that if her team can compete together and sustain success from the first point to the last, the Cardinals can be a tough out for anyone they match up with in this postseason.

“We have learned to work as a team and are a stronger team now than we were then,” Garbers said. “Our record doesn’t show what kind of team we are. We’ve lost a lot of tough matches that we shouldn’t have, that we’ve let teams back in after starting out on top. … I wouldn’t want to play me again.”

Third-seeded Pipestone Area on the other hand has gone 15-6 since the initial meet-up against the Cardinals, picking up wins against teams such as Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, Adrian/Ellsworth and New Ulm Cathedral. The match with Fairmont was just one of three times the Arrows have had a five-setter this season.

The Arrows pose a handful of threats in the offensive area of their game, with multiple individuals carrying abilities to step up and make a play for their team.

Senior outside hitter Taryn Tuinstra will have a majority of Garber’s focus for game-plan purposes, with her ability to tally kills in a hurry. Juniors Emersyn Smidt and Kaysa Douty also pose threats above the net, showing time and time again this season their skills when putting balls past the outstretched arms of any defender they face.

The keys to any sort of success this Friday for Fairmont will start and end with limiting self-inflicted mistakes. Whether it’s clearing the net with every serve or setting up teammates with precise passes, Garbers knows that the team that limits the most errors will come out victorious.

“We really need to focus on our passing and still serving tough, but keeping them in bounds and forcing them to make the mistakes,” Garbers said. “We need fewer free balls from us. We are going to continue to attack the ball as much as we can. On our side, picking every ball up. We go into these games now thinking any game could be your last.”