Two sports teams from PCM were in action Tuesday. The cross country team traveled to Williamsburg for the season opener. The Mustang girls placed fifth as a team with 121 points. Sophomore Paige Steenhoek led the way, placing 13th with a time of 22:11.8. Right behind her in 14th was freshman Tiffani Koonce coming in at 22:14.0. Rounding out the PCM top three was sophomore Rile DeVore, placing 23rd with a time of 23:28.2.
The PCM boys did not have enough runners for a complete team. Senior Garin Padget was the top finisher for the Mustangs, placing 42nd with a time of 21:32.6.
Full results can be found here. PCM will be back in action on Tuesday at Grinnell.
The Mustang volleyball team hosted its home opener, taking on Des Moines North in the first game on the brand new gym floor in Monroe. PCM came out in dominant fashion, sweeping the Polar Bears 3-0. The teams went back and forth to start set one, largely trading the first 14 points. That’s when the Mustangs made their move, finishing out the set in quick fashion with a 25-16 final. PCM faced a bit more adversity in closing out the second set, but still ended with a 25-17 margin. The Mustangs led by as many as 15-2 in set 3 before earning the sweep with 25-9 final. Head Coach Mike Vittetoe says that while his team committed several unforced errors, it was still great to get the win.
“We had way too many unforced errors. In game 1, we had 12 unforced errors of their 16 points, and then we had a number of them in game 2. It was either hitting errors, missed serves, lifts, we just gave away too many points. But it was good to see we came out in game 3 serving tough. Claire Wilson had a long streak, I don’t know how many she served in a row, seemed like maybe a dozen or around there. She has such good movement on her ball, just kind of a right to left movement that gives people fits. So she had a nice run there, really helped us.”
Claire Wilson picked up 10 service aces during the match. Celeste Wagaman and Jacki Vos each had three kills to lead the way offensively. Chelsea Bird had six digs. PCM moves to 5-5 overall, matching last season’s win total. They’ll be back in action Thursday at Roland-Story for the conference opener.