Following their competitions on Tuesday, it’ll be a quick turnaround for the Pella Christian cross country and volleyball squads as both teams are back in action tonight. The Eagles cross country squads runs in the Lynnville-Sully Invitational, while the volleyball team competes in the Des Moines Christian volleyball tournament.

The Pella Christian cross country teams continue to see improvements with each meet they run this season. The #11 ranked Eagles boys squad has seen the time gap between their #1-#7 runner shrink from 3:28 (17:27-20:24) to 2:49 (16:54-19:11) in their last four meets. Meanwhile, the Pella Christian girls have dropped their team average time in every meet so far this season. With the constant improvements the Eagles have seen, they are hopeful that can help lead them to similar success to what they had a year ago at Lynnville-Sully. The Pella Christian boys had five runners place in the top 17 en route to winning the event, while the girls team came in fourth behind Joslyn Terpstra’s second place finish.

At the Des Moines Christian volleyball tournament, the Eagles will compete in four matches including two against ranked teams. In the first match of the tournament, Pella Christian faces off with Class 4A’s #14 ranked Knoxville. The Eagles then face Newton and Southeast Warren in the next two games, before ending the night with Class 3A’s #1 ranked Des Moines Christian. Last season, Pella Christian went 2-2 in the DMC volleyball tournament, with the two wins coming against Southeast Warren and Newton. Sophomore setter Chloe Huisman knows the Eagles are a young and improving team but says that the youth isn’t an excuse for not competing to the best of their abilities.

“We have definitely really improved as the season began. I mean, we still have lots of work to do. We’re a young team, but again, we can’t use that as excuses. We cannot use excuses for our losses and we just gotta keep working hard.”

Both the Lynnville-Sully Invitational and the Des Moines Christian volleyball tournament begin at 4:30 p.m.