Oskaloosa claims LHC Tournament title with tough win over Pella

Oct. 15—GRINNELL — One of the toughest tournaments to win on the schedule of these teams happened on Thursday night at the Little Hawkeye Conference Tournament. Four consecutive games against familiar foes to decide their tournament placing. No. 6 (4A) Oskaloosa and No. 10 (4A) Pella were one of three co-champions of the regular season LHC race this year and they would meet in the finals with Oskaloosa coming away with the thrilling 2-1 (25-22, 19-25, 15-7) win to win their first conference tournament title since the tourney began in 2016.

"They've taken everything they've learned and they put it together this season," Oskaloosa head coach Jennifer Comfort said. "To come out and just play like we should and play Oskaloosa volleyball and not worry about who's on that side of the net or who's doing what. We just focused on us and I was just really proud of the Indians of how they played."

Oskaloosa entered the night as the No. 1 seed after breaking a three-way tiebreaker with Indianola and Pella. The opened their tournament against the eighth-seeded Newton Cardinals and quickly despatched them with a 2-0 (21-6, 21-5) win.

They would continue that momentum against fifth-seeded Dallas Center-Grimes in the second round of pool play with another 2-0 (21-8, 21-17) triumph.

That would bring Osky to a tough third round match against fourth-seeded Norwalk. The Warriors surprised a little bit as they came out firing to win the first set fairly handily 21-11 over the Indians. Oskaloosa would regroup and come back to win the next two sets 21-14 and 15-7 to win the match and secure a spot in the finals.

Meanwhile in the other pool bracket, Pella started their day with a rematch against Pella Christian, who they just battled in a four setter on Monday.

The Lady Dutch came out with great energy and great defense, winning most of the long rallies and coming up with some big digs on their way to taking the first set, 21-11.

Pella led 19-16 late in the second set before the Eagles would storm back with a big Sarah Gritters kill capping off a 7-2 run to give the set to PC 23-21 and force a third set.

Pella Christian would see their errors increase in that final set and Pella took advantage and they rolled to a 15-5 win of the final set to avoid an early upset.

It was a hard-fought night of volleyball for the Eagles as they followed up that match with a tough 2-1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-8) loss to Indianola. But PC would bounce back nicely in their final two games, defeating Grinnell 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) and Norwalk 2-1 (25-20, 21-25, 15-12) to take fifth place.

In their fifth place win over Norwalk, Gritters led them with 16 kills while Trinity Vos had eight kills and Jema Settles chipped in six kills. Chloe Huisman tallied 33 assists. Natalie Harrill led the defense with 11 digs while Annika Van Dyke had two blocks and Emma Eekhoff had two aces.

After topping PC in their first match, Pella went on beat Grinnell 2-0 (21-8, 21-11) before avenging their lone conference loss to Indianola in the final round of pool play. The Lady Dutch dropped a back and fourth first set to the Indians 24-22 but would get things going in the final two sets with a couple of late kills from Bailey Van Voorst giving Pella the 2-1 (22-24, 21-15, 15-13) win to punch their ticket to the finals and set up a rematch of last year's finals against Oskaloosa.

"Four matches at this point in the season one night is a lot, especially when you're going three sets here and there," Pella head coach Mallory Peterson said. "The opportunity was there and just to have that opportunity to repeat and to get to that championship match says a lot. We've done well when playing from behind like we have all season which, especially on a long night, is good to see."

The Indians and Lady Dutch would clash for the third time this season having split both meetings. Oskaloosa had the early advantage jumping out to a 16-10 lead behind a good offense and limited Pella attempts. Van Voorst would get going late in the set to cut the deficit for the Lady Dutch to 22-20 before Osky finished on a 3-0 run with two huge blocks from Aby Thompson.

Blocks were a key for Oskaloosa on the day as they fueled their runs and gave them energy when they needed it.

"They get pumped because that's one thing that we've really been working on," Comfort said. "I tell the girls, 'you know we're tall, but we're not great blockers,' and I think tonight that they kind of turned that corner into understanding why we have to be great blockers. It's our first line of defense, we have to execute on it and we have to be great at it. I was very proud of them and very proud of their effort. It definitely made a difference in some of those matches tonight."

Pella would start to find some cracks in those blocks in the second set while getting some huge digs from the likes of Abby Warner, the sophomore libero had great night for the Lady Dutch flying around the court and coming up with some big-time digs.

"She's a gamer," Peterson said of Warner. "I think she's really taken that role, stepped into it and really wants to get better at it. She's constantly asking questions and just for her, having not seen a lot of varsity time for us until this year, and now coming and kind of stepping into that, it's good to see."

Oskaloosa would try to crawl back in the set late with Pella holding a narrow 21-19. But just Osky did in the first set, Pella would close out the second set strong with an Ella Corbin block and kill pushing the Lady Dutch on a 4-0 run to take the second set 25-19.

The serving was sharp for both teams to start the third and decisive set. The Indians would then look to DeRonde to close things out and she did just that with six kills in the final frame to get Oskaloosa the 15-7 win and claim their first Little Hawkeye Conference Tournament title.

"Great teams have great players and she's made the rest of these girls around her better," Comfort said of DeRonde. "They've all been playing together for so long, they trust each other they work together well, they fight like sisters and they love each other like sisters. It's just really cool that we're all having this success together. We talk about Faith and she said if I have zero kills and we get a green banner, I'm happy. She doesn't need a number, she's very humble and she's very encouraging of her teammates because she knows that the more success they have, the more success she's going to have."

DeRonde finished with 13 kills and seven digs in the match while Maleah Walker added seven kills and 11 digs with Olivia Gordon finishing with 14 assists and Lucy Roach tallying three aces.

For Pella, Van Voorst eclipsed the 1,000 career kills mark to add to what has been a fantastic high school career.

"She'll put the ball away when we need to and she'll be smart about," Peterson said of Van Voorst. "She reached 1,000 kills tonight in that last set and that says a lot about her as an offensive player."

This may not be the final matchup between these two as they find themselves in the same regional and could have an eventual round four with a trip to state on the line. With the regular season wrapping up for both squads on Thursday, they now look to postseason play starting next week.

"I feel like we're playing our best volleyball where we need to be," Peterson said. "And regardless of the outcome, tonight still feels like a positive night."

No. 6 (4A) Oskaloosa (29-4) and No. 10 (4A) Pella (28-9) await their regional semifinal opponent on Thursday while Pella Christian (14-18) continues their late tournament play as they head to Knoxville on Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

Colin Peters can be reached at 641-672-2581, by email at cpeters@oskyherald.com or on Twitter @ColinPetersOH.