Briercrest clips RDC Kings
Clippers 3 Kings 2
The RDC Kings are a hard team to figure out.
Just when they look as if they should have some momentum they revert back to the form that sees them struggling to just stay in third place in the South Division of the Alberta Colleges Men’s Volleyball League.
A week ago the Kings looked like they may challenge the elite teams in the league when they downed the Mount Royal College Cougars. But instead of using that to gain some late-season momentum, they took a step back, dropping a 25-23, 23-25, 24-26, 26-24, 10-15 decision to the fifth-place Briercrest Bible College Clippers before close to 400 fans at RDC Friday.
Even in this match, the Kings showed their lack of consistency as they came from behind to win the fourth set, then quickly fell behind 8-3 in the fifth game.
“I thought we built some momentum, but then our passing breaks down,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha.
But credit also goes to the Clippers, who are playing as well as any team in the league of late. Last weekend they split with South Division leading Medicine Hat and Friday were full marks for the victory as they made fewer mistakes.
“Give them credit and give their coach Nigel (Mullan) credit as he saw we were struggling against their float serve and that’s all they went to,” added Schulha. “We have to be able to pass an easy float serve.”
Schulha also felt the Clippers defence frustrated his hitters.
“We knew they’d play good defence and because of it our guys tried to do to much. As well we went away from using our middles and as a result they keyed on our outside hitters.”
The loss left the Kings at 9-8 and in a tie with the SAIT Trojans, who beat Mount Royal 3-2, The Clippers improved to 7-10.
Mitch Irvine led the Kings with 19 kills and 13 digs while Chris Wowchuk had 15 kills and seven digs, Brandon Papp 11 kills and nine digs and libero Robert Kurio nine digs. Scott Lesher of Lacombe and Joel Dyck led the Clippers with 14 kills each while Michael Haasdyk had 12 kills.
Queens 3 Clippers 1
It wasn’t their best match of the season, but the Queens did enough to pull out a 18-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-16 victory.
“We got caught with our pants down in that first set and weren’t ready to play . . . the speed of the game wasn’t what we expected,” said Queens head coach Talbot Walton.
The Queens had problems passing and running any kind of attack in the first game and were fortunate it was as close as it was.
Ashley Strome was one of the few members of the Queens who played a steady match from the outset and finished with 10 kills and 11 digs.
“Ashley came ready to play and when everyone else pulled themselves up to her level we started playing closer to the way we should,” said Walton, who also inserted middle Dana Fox into the lineup, which helped solidify the middle.
Walton also gave credit to two other bench players, who provided a lift — outside hitter Jill Folkard and setter Alyssa Jones.
“That’s what you need from your bench players. Jill has done an excellent job of late providing a spark off the bench, as did the other girls.”
Katie Graves had 10 kills and 10 digs and Quinn Schulzke 10 digs for RDC. Kayla Bruce had eight kills for the Clippers.
The win gave the Queens a 16-1 record and left them one win from clinching first place in the south. They could do that today as they host the Clippers at 1 p.m. The men will follow.
Contact Danny Rode at drode@reddeeradvocate.com
