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Arianna Blohm grew up around a who’s who of Stewartville volleyball players.

Among them were a pair of eventual Division I players, Erin Lamb (University of Kentucky) and Kaitlyn Pronzinski (Illinois State University), both of them explosive front-row players.

Blohm wondered if she could ever remotely be in their league. Stewartville Hall of Fame coach John Dzubay wondered the same thing. Blohm, four and three years younger than Prondzinski and Lamb, respectively, had the height to compete. She was 6-foot as a freshman.

But that was pretty much all that Blohm had back then — height. There wasn't much skill or dexterity to go with it. At least not then.

“When she was younger, she was (physically) awkward,” Dzubay said. “I didn’t have any idea that she’d turn into a great player. But by the time she was a sophomore, she knew what she was doing. And physically, she really started to change.”

Now look. The future Division I player, who’s committed to North Dakota State University, isn’t just a good player, she is far and away the best player on a Stewartville team that is once again among the state’s best, ranked fourth in Class AAA.

With Blohm, the Tigers are a top-10 team. Without her, Dzubay said they are not. That’s why he’s always paying so much attention to her health. Injuries have riddled her through the years, including her sitting out the last one-third of last season with a stress fracture in her back. Dzubay is desperate that she stay on the floor this season.

Blohm's right shoulder has been bugging her. But that’s still not held her back from being dominant, leading Stewartville in two crucial statistical categories.

Blohm has 191 kills (next closest on the team is 66) and 31 blocks (next closest is 13). She also has 120 digs, which is remarkable for a girl who’s now 6-1. That ranks third on the team.

“Without her, we’re not nearly the same,” Dzubay said. “You look at her cumulative stats and she leads us in almost everything. She was doing great in the back row for us, but we decided we can’t leave her in there all the time, so we don’t have her back there now. We want her to rest and focus on hitting. She has really learned how to hit the ball. She doesn’t hit as hard as Prondzinski did or as consistently as Erin. But she is absolutely our best right now.”

It’s been a season of change for Blohm, who had fellow standout and current Division I player Allie Elliott (Fairfield University), another hitting machine, next to her last year.

Now, as Stewartville’s undisputed No. 1 player, there has been responsibility to not just play well, but to lead.

That’s not always been natural for Blohm, who’s not a big talker and is described by Dzubay as a “cerebral” player.

But she’s made strides in stepping out this season.

“I’m proud of her this year for being more emotional and fired up,” Dzubay said. “She used to just kind of do her thing in the background. But she is a more vocal leader this year, staying positive and keeping everyone on track.”

Blohm’s confidence has grown as she’s continued to expand her skills and worth to teams.

She’s done that thanks to all that she’s put into the game.

Blohm is a year-round player and for the last two years a member of the Northern Lights, the top Junior Olympic volleyball organization in Minnesota that practices in Burnsville.

“That was a huge jump for me,” Blohm said. “I went from practicing two times a week to three nights a week and sometimes playing on Saturdays. We go from November until June. But that helped me grow, playing with so many high-level athletes from around Minnesota. It’s taken me to a whole new level with the speed of the game.”

Blohm knows how she wants this Stewartville high school season to end. It’s for her team to get back to the state tournament. She is familiar with the experience, having been a freshman on a Tigers team that got there and won it all in 2019.

Stewartville didn’t advance to state last year, and in 2020 — when it was picked to repeat as state champion — it didn’t go either, the state tournament canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want to go to state; that’s what we’re pushing for,” Blohm said.

Blohm knows it’s on her to help guide the team to that destination. She made that realization when the season started.

“For two years, I’d been an underclassmen on this team and there were Division I players around me,” Blohm said. “Now, I’m the only Division I player. But it’s come into my skin that I can do these things.”

She can play and lead. She’s been doing both all season.

“Arianna is a good leader,” Stewartville freshman setter Abbie Langseth said. “She sends us texts before games and she is always encouraging us and hyping us up before games.”