Pella Christian had several exciting sports moments happen over the past year, and while our top ten features some of the biggest, plenty of others are worth mentioning before we begin the second half of the Top 10 countdown from Eagle Lane. 

Pella Christian Volleyball Wins Five-Set Thriller at Oskaloosa

It took five sets and extra points, but the Pella Christian volleyball team was able to pull off the upset conference victory over rival Oskaloosa to extend their winning streak to eight matches on Tuesday, September 27th.

The Eagles grabbed the win in the opening set 25-21, before dropping sets two and three 15-25 and 21-25. After falling behind 2-1 in the match, Pella Christian responded by playing some of their best volleyball of the season to pull out the 25-22 victory in set four. In an absolute roller coaster of a fifth set, the Eagles did just enough to come away with a 20-18 deciding match win to complete the upset. Eagles Head Coach Tammi Wight said that it was encouraging to see the team’s confidence grow as the match progressed throughout the night.

“Just seeing their confidence kind of go up as the the game went on, because it was a five-setter and we’re just strong, we were strong all the way through and that’s exciting. We’re inexperienced and we’re young and to be able to battle it out, come into Oskaloosa and battle and actually pull it out it was just awesome. I’m so proud of my kids.”

Emma Eekhoff had a fantastic night for Pella Christian, delivering five aces on a perfect 25-25 serving in addition to having eight kills, seven digs, two assists and a block. At the net, the Eagles got strong performances from Cara Veenstra, Maggie Heinen, and Addison Bandstra. Veenstra contributed nine kills and two blocks, Heinen had seven kills, 10 digs, two aces, and a block, and Bandstra added seven kills and a block. Defensively, Pella Christian was led by Emri Agre with 23 digs, while Faith Kacmarynski also had 14 digs and two aces. After the match, Eekhoff and Kacmarynski said that it was fun to see all their effort result in a big road win.

Eekhoff: “When we went into the locker room, we were just so filled with joy right now because we fought really, really hard in those last sets and that last set specifically. We really put our all out there and we are really glad that we came out with a win. ”

Kacmarynski: “Yeah, it was just so much fun and one of our words is all-in and we were definitely all in against Osky.”

The Eagles finished the season with a 25-15 overall record.

Pella Christian Football Shuts Out Regina for Playoff Victory

Pella Christian racked up 373 yards of offense and made several critical defensive stands on Friday, October 11th to down Iowa City Regina 31-0 in the opening round of the Class 1A football playoffs.

After going three-and-out on the opening series of the game, the Eagles recovered a Regal fumble at their own 46 yard line, then dipped into the bag of tricks for a 54-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Peyton Ritzert to Jack Fancher. Coach Rich Kacmarynski says that they’ve been working on that play for about a month and felt like it was the perfect time to put it into action.

“It’s nice to go with something like that after a turnover and a quick change. We had great field position, so we thought it was the right time for it. Peyton executed it well and Fancher had the big catch. Jack’s got some great speed so they weren’t able to run him down, which was really nice.”

The Eagles defense came up with two critical stops on the Regals next two drives, stopping a fourth and one from inside the 20 and a fourth and goal from the two.

Isaac Kacmarynski hit Fancher on a 15-yard scoring strike just before halftime, then found Ritzert from 14 yards out midway thru the third quarter. Pella Christian got two more fourth down stops in the second half, added a Fancher field goal late in the third quarter, then capped the scoring on Kacmarynski’s 42-yard pick six with less than two minutes to go.

The Eagles ran for 181 yards and threw for 192, while improving to 8-1 on the season.

Pella Christian Baseball Wins Pitching Duels to Sweep Indianola

A pair of pitching duels went the way of Pella Christian Wednesday, May 31st, as they downed Indianola in a doubleheader 3-2 and 4-2, earning their first sweep over the Indians in the Bound era.

The Indians grabbed the early advantage in game one of the twinbill with a two-run bottom of the second inning and held that lead through the fourth. After being held hitless through the opening four frames, the Eagles’ offense broke through for a three-run top of the fifth on three hits, a fielder’s choice and an error and held on the rest of the way for the 3-2 win. Pitching headlined the game one win for Pella Christian, with Corbin Westerkamp record nine of Pella Christian’s 11 punch outs to pick up the win, while Johnson Morgan’s two strikeouts helped him earn the save.

In the nightcap of the doubleheader, Indianola nabbed the early lead again with a run in the bottom of the first inning. The Indians lead held until the top of the fourth, when the Eagles plated two runs on a single and a wild pitch. Following scoreless frames in the fifth and sixth innings, Pella Christian added a pair of key insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a Brecken Ritzert two-RBI single. Indianola wouldn’t go away easily as an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh pulled the Indians back within two, but the game-tying run was left stranded on first base with Eagles starter Lincoln Vander Molen’s fourth strikeout. Vander Molen worked around eight hits to allow just two runs in the complete game win. 

The wins pushed Pella Christian’s record to 7-2 on the season and 2-1 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.