The final regular season match, Senior Night, and a packed gym set the scene for the renewal of the Tulip City Volleyball Showdown on Eagle Lane, as #10 in 4A Pella knocked off Pella Christian in four sets, 18-25, 26-24, 25-9, and 25-15.

The Eagles kept the Dutch off balance with their aggressive serves, and added some key blocks and kills to pull out the win in the first set. The second set was a hard fought match in which both teams held leads late in the set, but Pella prevailed to tie the match at one. The third set was all Dutch, as they used big service runs, kills, and solid defense to win the set by 16. The fourth and final set would see the Dutch jump out early, and while the Eagles would try to claw their way back into the set, it wasn’t enough as Pella walked away with the victory.

Pella Head Coach Mallory Peterson says while she was hopeful for a faster start, she is thankful her team has shown more bounce back abilities in the conference season this fall. 

“It’s kind of the story of the season with us. We’ve talked about this almost every night, our ability to just come back from being down. We’ve shown that we can do that over and over again, in and out of the conference, whether it be in Saturday tournaments or in conference play. It’s good to finish the regular season conference play with a win and have that momentum going into Thursday.”

Eagles Head Coach Tammi Wight enjoyed the energy on Eagle Lane, and was proud of how her young squad handled the environment and how they played.

“The environment was awesome, the atmosphere was just electric. We had a (big) crowd show up, we had to pull out extra bleachers, which is awesome. Our girls, I’m really proud of them for how they handled it. They came out and competed and that’s all I can ask of them, and they had great energy. I’m just really proud of our kids for coming out and fighting and taking a set from Pella, because I don’t really think a lot of people thought we could do that.”

With the win, Pella improved to 6-1 in Little Hawkeye Conference play and 25-8 on the season. Pella Christian fell to 2-5 in league play and 12-16 overall in the loss. Both teams will return to action Thursday night in the Little Hawkeye Conference Tournament at Grinnell High School. The tournament starts at 4:30 pm.