By Sam Parsons
The Oskaloosa Indians made the short road trip to Pella Christian last night in pursuit of their first Little Hawkeye Conference win. Pella Christian, who entered the week as the #11 ranked team in the state among class 2A schools, would present a formidable challenge both on paper and on the hardwood.
The match began with Pella Christian going on an early run to take a 10-4 lead in the opening set, only for Oskaloosa to start stringing together quality rallies and serve-receives to get right back into it. The opening set was tied 22-22 before the Eagles buckled down and scored back-to-back-to-back points to win 25-22 and take a 1-0 set advantage.
Set #2 was a different story: it was back-and-forth to start, with the Eagles holding a 13-10 lead midway through; unfortunately, Oskaloosa’s serve-receive faltered for a period and the Eagles took advantage in a big way, rattling off 10 consecutive points. The set wound up being a dominant 25-13 victory for Pella Christian, who now led 2-0 and were searching for a sweep to avenge last season’s 5-setter loss at Oskaloosa.
The Indians, however, would not make things easy for the Eagles. Pella Christian suffered from a few service errors and hitting errors early in the 3rd set to give the Indians an early lead, but even as the Eagles rounded back into form, Oskaloosa continued to assert themselves: quality defensive performances from their middle hitters, Hannah Nelson and Ireland McGraw, combined with some consistent offense generated by Gracie DeRonde and Cylee Smith, who finished the night with 10 kills and 7 kills, respectively, prevented the Eagles from ever making the set interesting. Oskaloosa responded to PC’s dominant second set with a dominant set of their own, as they won the third set 25-14.
The Indians needed to win the fourth set in order to keep the match going, and they battled hard in front of a packed gym. The Indians and Eagles went back and forth, occasionally engaging in impressively long rallies. Neither team held a lead larger than 3 points until the Eagles led Oskaloosa 23-18 late, appearing to be poised to close the door. Oskaloosa then put up 3 straight points to quickly trim the lead to two, and after the teams traded points, it was 24-22 PC; the match would unfortunately end on an underwhelming note, as Oskaloosa was called for four hits on a short rally and PC would win the fourth set 25-22.
Oskaloosa (5-13) will play their next match at home versus #5 Pella next Tuesday. Coverage will start at 7pm on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com.
