The Pella Christian and Pleasantville volleyball teams begin their postseason journey tonight, as they square off in the second round of the Class 2A Region 8 playoffs.
Tonight marks the fourth time that the Eagles and Trojans have squared off in regional play since 2018. Pella Christian holds the advantage in those three matches, sweeping Pleasantville in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Overall in the Varsity Bound Era, the Eagles are 6-0 against the Trojans.
While this is the fourth time Pella Christian and Pleasantville have met in regionals in the last five years, this is the first time the two teams met beforehand in the regular season. The Eagles and Trojans faced off in the North Mahaska Invitational in mid-September, with P.C. sweeping the match 21-17, 21-17. Although having already beaten the Trojans this fall, Pella Christian seniors Cara Veenstra, Anna DeBoef, and Emri Agre say the focus on the task at hand.
Veenstra: “As we’ve been looking at postseason, the main thing we keep saying is, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the net. We’re just gonna focus on our game and controlling our side and just doing our best.”
DeBoef: “We’ve really been focusing on just controlling our side, and no matter who’s on the other side of the net, we need to just look to each other and bring each other up and just really control. Our own passes, our sets, our hits, and everything that’s happening on our side of the net.”
Agre: “Yeah, we just need to play our game tonight and just play free and we’ll be good to go.”
Pleasantville head coach Joel Allman knows his squad faces a tough test this evening but hopes that their deeper schedule has prepared his team for tonight’s contest.
“It’s going to be a pretty fast offense and they’re going to be aggressive and they’re going to serve well. And so, we just have to know that we’ve played against teams that are of their caliber and we need to go out and put pressure back on them.”
First serve on Eagle Lane between Pella Christian and Pleasantville is set for 7 p.m., and the winner advances to play the winner of West Burlington and Van Buren on Monday.