It’s been a decade since the Eagles volleyball team has knocked off their crosstown rivals on a volleyball court; the No. 11 in Class 2A Pella Christian girls are hoping to turn the tide against #4 in 4A Pella tonight in the Tulip City showdown renewed.

The Dutch (17-4 overall, 1-0 in the LHC) and P.C. (9-3 overall, 1-1 in conference competition) have already clashed at the Skip Anderson Tournament on August 31st in Bondurant, which was advantage Pella in a narrow two-set win (21-19, 21-19). Tonight’s matchup is the full best-of-five, which will also take place two days before the teams meet again on Thursday at Des Moines Christian. Pella has controlled the overall rivalry series since 2007, winning 24 of those 28 matchups and 17 in a row.

Junior Katie Scheckel says it’s imperative that the Dutch improve on some of the miscues they had against DCG last week — especially in a much tougher crowd environment.

“Our team definitely has a lot of momentum, and we saw Pella Christian at the tournament in Bondurant and they were very solid,” she says. “We just need to play our game and clean up the little things, and we can take care of business from there.

P.C.’s Brynn Runner says her Eagles are not shying away from the challenge of playing a Class 4A state title contender, knowing they have their own prospects of competing in 2A later this fall.

“We’re just telling ourselves that we’re a good team, and we can play with these teams, and we can beat them if we’re playing well.”

This will be the first best-of-five Tulip City matchup for Pella Head Coach Joel Allman, but the new Eagles head coach is familiar with her green and white foe; Andrea Kacmarynski played against Pella several times in her high school career on Eagle Lane.

First serve is at 7:15 this evening at Pella High School.