Queens sweep MRC
Queens 3 Cougars 0
Although they won’t get a chance to host the Alberta Colleges Women’s Volleyball League championship, the RDC Queens will into the season-ending tournament with loads of confidence.
The championship tournament will be held at Mount Royal, but the Queens should go in as the South Division champions after an impressive 25-21 25-15, 25-18 victory over the MRC Cougars before over 300 fans at RDC Saturday.
The win gave the Queens a 15-1 record while the Cougars dropped to 13-3. The RDC squad has four games remaining and need to win two to wrap up first place.
“Finishing first does mean something plus beating Mount Royal is big as down the road we’ll likely face them again,” said Queens veteran setter Quinn Schulzke, who was named the RDC player of the match. “Finishing first means we’ll likely face the second-place team out of the north in the playoffs and that should be Grande Prairie, who we know well.”
Queens head coach Talbot Walton couldn’t have been happier with the way his team performed after the first two sets in Friday’s match at MRC. The Queens lost the first two sets before storming back to win three straight.
“We knew we should have won that second set on Friday and the girls said to themselves they were better than that and picked it up and played six really good sets in a row. This is a big weekend for us to see where we’re at against a team that will be there in the end.”
The Queens have more experience in terms of year’s in the league, which may have been a difference as the Cougars seemed a bit tight in tough situations. Yet Schulzke didn’t feel that was an advantage.
“They’re young, but have players with experience at the provincial and even national level, so I don’t think that’s a major difference,” she said. “I know we have a high level of respect for them. The main thing for us was to do what we needed to do on our side and play at a level we know we can.”
Ashley Strome finished with nine kills for the Queens while Jessica Clutton added seven kills and seven digs, Kate Graves six kills and eight digs and libero Robyn Brouwer 17 digs. Christina Coleman had 10 kills for the Cougars and Breanna Estabrooks eight.
Kings 3 Cougars 2
The Kings up-and-down season was all on display against the Cougars Saturday.
They stormed out of the gate to win the opening two games 26-24, 25-18, dropped the next two 23-25, 19-25 before winning the fifth 15-12.
“You’d think we had all the momentum after the second set, but things that hurt us all season jumped up and bit us again,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha. “Our offence was good tonight, but our passing let us down.”
The Kings also didn’t play with the same emotion in the third and fourth sets.
“I thought towards the end of the second set we let down and didn’t have the same energy,” added Schulha. “Still the guys picked it up in fifth, something we may not have done at other times this season. The guys did a good job of staying in the match and our big guys stepped it up when they had to.”
Mitch Irvine led the RDC offence with 24 kills while Kyle Baird had 12 kills and four aces, Chris Wowchuk 11 kills and Brandon Papp five kills and eight digs. Andrew Visser had 14 kills, Levi Nutma 13 and Pat Gourlay 12 for MRC.
Baird, who switched into the middle from the right side, had one of his strongest games, although he’s still working on his blocking.
“We worked with Kyle on blocking out of the right side, now we shift him and he has to learn a new position, but he’s playing well,” said Schulha. “He works hard and is receptive to everything we tell him.”
l The Cougars and Medicine Hat are first in the south at 11-5 while RDC is 9-7 and SAIT 8-8 . . . The RDC squad host Briercrest in a doubleheader next weekend.
Contact Danny Rode at drode@reddeeradvocate.com
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