“We haven’t lost a five game match yet and we’re not going to lose tonight!”

Those words of encouragement were spoken by volleyball co-captain Kirsten Johanson as the team huddled before the fifth and deciding game at Fairmont Thursday night.

The words came true as the Bucs won the final game 15-8 to improve their record to 7-0 in the conference.

This was the second time in three nights that the Bucs found themselves down 2 games to 1 and needing to mount a comeback to gain a victory.

They had defeated the Cardinals in the first game 25-16 but fell to the Cardinals 25-20 in game 2.

It appeared that Blue Earth Area had gotten the momentum back early in game 3 as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead.

The score remained close being tied at 12 before Fairmont pulled away en route to a 25-18 victory.

“We didn’t work as hard as Fairmont in games 2 and 3, we gave them unforced errors,” said coach Donna Lee. “We dug ourselves a hole and we couldn’t get out.”

Coach Lee had her own words of encouragement for the team as they got ready for game 4.

“I told them they were going to have to step it up if they wanted to keep an unblemished conference record,” says Lee.

Step it up they did as the Bucs took the lead at 9-8 in game 4 and didn’t surrender it as they went on to win 25-20.

That set up the pivotal fifth game. Jenny Smith served the Bucs to a 4-0 start and Fairmont could never get any closer than 3 points trailing 5-2 before the Bucs pulled away for the 7 point win.

Blue Earth Area had an outstanding night serving, hitting on 102 of 104 serves. Leading the way was Morgan Dickman as she was 21 for 21 with 3 aces.

Jenny Smith was 19 of 19 and Johanson was also perfect from the service line getting all 16 of her serves in.

Danika Stindtman had a big night as she led the team with 29 digs, 23 kills and 5 ace blocks. Sydney Ristau added 11 kills while Kate Hassing recorded 8 kills.

Johanson was credited with 47 set assists.

The girls will next host conference foe Waseca on Thursday.