Pella Christian had many exciting sports moments happen over the past year, and while our top ten features some of the biggest, there are plenty of others worth mentioning as we head into the second half of the Top 10 countdown from Eagle Lane.
Eagles Volleyball Dominates Regional Opener
The Pella Christian Volleyball Team began the Class 2A Regional Tournament on October 18th in dominant fashion with a sweep of East Marshall 25-12, 25-10, and 25-10.
The Eagles were aggressive with their serves throughout the match, racking up 21 aces as a team. Head Coach Tammi Wight said that her team’s ability to serve has been a key to their success all season and that tonight was no exception.
“Serving is a strength of ours. We’ve got some very good servers that are able to place the ball where I ask them to place the ball with some pace. So, it’s been one of our strengths all year. If we can serve well and take the other team out of system, we’re successful when we do that. Once we got into our rhythm of serving it seemed to rattle them a lot.”
Freshman Chloe Huisman led the team in aces with six, followed by Seniors Sarah Gritters and Natalie Harrill with five aces each. Huisman had 24 assists, Gritters had 11 kills and Harrill had 11 digs in the Eagles victory.
The Eagles advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Regional Tournament with the win before falling the #1 ranked team and the eventual state champions in Class 2A Dike-New Hartford.
Pella Christian Boys Tennis Moves One Step Closer to State
Competing in their preliminary substate match with Oskaloosa, the Pella Christian boys tennis team grabbed a 5-2 victory on May 13th to advance to the substate final.
Needing five match wins on the day, individual state qualifier Alejo Marcon got Pella Christian their first win, sweeping his singles match (6-0, 6-0) at the top spot in the singles lineup. In #3-5 singles, Shaun Oosterheert, Toby Vander Molen, and Alejandro Murdoch were victorious, and put the Eagles within one win in doubles play from advancing to the substate final. Marcon and Isaac Natelborg gave P.C. the win need with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in #1 doubles.
The Eagles advanced to the Substate Final where they fell to Class 1A’s #6 ranked Ballard, but not before an impressive year to highlight the program’s second season back after nine years of not having boys tennis.
Pella Christian Golf Advances to District Tournament
The Pella Christian boys golf team picked a great time to play their best round of the season, as they placed second in the class 2A sectional tournament at Gateway Recreation Golf Course in Monroe on May 11th, with a team score of 326.
Eliot Menninga had a stellar day for the Eagles. Minninga set a team low score for the season, a career personal best, and was the medalist for the day with a 73. Isaiah Breems also medaled at 4th place overall for the tournament with a personal best 78. Dane Geetings turned in a solid 87 and Kyle Gao shot an 88. Cooper Spronk and Deacon Branderhorst rounded out the lineup for P.C. carding an 89 and a 92 respectively.
Eagles Girls Soccer Wins Overtime Thriller in Season Opener
The Pella Christian girls soccer team began their season March 29th with a thrilling 3-2 road win over 3A opponent Ottumwa.
The Eagles had six shots on goal to Ottumwa’s five in the first half, but found themselves down 1-0 at halftime after the Bulldogs’ striker found the net with 39 seconds left in the half. In the ninth minute of the second half, the Eagles were unable to clear a through ball that allowed Ottumwa to take 2-0 lead. Following the second goal, Pella Christian moved goalkeeper Lydia Zylstra to striker, and put backup goalkeeper Dani Roose into the lineup. The change provided just the spark the Eagles needed, as two-time 1st Team All-Little Hawkeye Conference player Joslyn Terpstra pulled Pella Christian back within one. With only 3 minutes and 37 second left in regulation, the Eagles had a chance at their third penalty kick of the night, and last season’s All-Little Hawkeye Conference 2nd teamer Jaclyn Holmes tied the match. Going into the sudden death overtime period, Pella Christian won the coin toss. Only one minute into the overtime period, Hattie Fancher placed a through ball to Terpstra who beat the goalie one on one for the game winning goal.
The win propelled the Eagles to an 1-0 record and a deep postseason run that ended one game short of the state tournament in the Class 1A Region 6 Championship game against Nevada.
PC Softball’s Emri Agre and Natalie Harrill Earn Accolades
Emri Agre and Natalie Harrill had fantastic season’s for the Pella Christian softball team, which resulted in only All-Little Hawkeye Conference 1st Team honors, but also recognition on the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Class 2A Southeast All-District team.
The junior Agre finished the season with 108 total bases which led all of Class 2A and was tied for ninth in the entire state. Emri was tied for the most triples in 2A with nine on the season. Additionally in 2A, the junior was second in batting average (.573) and hits (59), tied for fourth in slugging percentage (1.049), and fifth in on base percentage (.614).
Agre and Harrill combined for 12 home runs, with both girls hitting six home runs apiece to tie for the team high this season.
Recent graduate Natalie Harrill highlighted a fantastic season and career for the Eagles by becoming the all-time home run leader in Pella Christian history with 21. Harrill was tied for the least number of strikeouts in the Little Hawkeye Conference with just three on the season, while leading the Eagles in RBIs with 30. Harrill was also selected to play for the Blue Team in the 2022 High School All-Star Games at Waukee High School on July 24th.
The countdown of the top 10 sports moments at Pella Christian during the 2021-2022 school year continues Monday with #5.