An at-times dominant serve was the key different in a five-set victory for the Pella Christian volleyball team over Oskaloosa (17-25, 25-18, 25-15, 21-25, 15-10) Monday.

Head Coach John Evenhouse says the night was far from perfect, but the serve allowed the Eagles to control needed runs, mostly in the 2nd and 3rd sets.

“We had a few serving errors, but we kept the ball low, we kept it hard, and were hitting spots that we wanted to hit and we had some pretty nice runs in there,” he says.

He says the serve helped on a night when the Eagles tallied 26 hitting errors and let numerous Oskaloosa returns drop due to miscommunication. Pella Christian finished with 19 service aces, including six from Mary Kate-Bandstra, four from Danielle Vande Voort, and three apiece from Emma Huisman and Ivy Terpstra.

The Eagles finish the conference regular season at 4-3, good for 4th place, which will be their seed in the upcoming conference tournament back in Oskaloosa Thursday.