Rattlers bite Kings
Rattlers 3 Kings 2
The RDC Kings went into their Alberta Colleges Men’s Volleyball League meeting with the Medicine Hat Rattlers at RDC Friday on a roll.
But it was the Rattlers that left with all the momentum after recording a 25-22, 17-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-9 victory over their hosts.
Although they did push the match to five sets the Kings never did look like the team that was coming off a victory in the highly-regarded Mount Royal University tournament.
The fact the Kings were missing both their veteran middle blockers — Sean Tuff (knee) and Boston Maris (ankle) — may have affected them mentally.
“Maybe a little bit, especially the way Boston and Nick were clicking at the Mount Royal tournament and the fact Sean was one of the top middles in the conference in the first half,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha, who used rookies Trent Schmidt and Jordan Gardiner and veteran Andy Inglis in the middle.
Schmidt played the entire match with Gardiner playing the final two sets.
“We have confidence in our other guys, but our middle attack was close to nonexistent and our left side attack was fairly nonexistent as well,” added Schulha. “At times Darcee (Froese) was good on the left side, but because he’s just back from a shoulder injury he can only handle so much and was getting tired by the end. Overall our left side and middle guys can get it down and have in the past, but not tonight. We can only rely on (right side) Taylor Hunt so much. At times he wasn’t great by any means, but when you rely on one guy that heavily it’s easy for a team to key on him.”
Hunt finished with 26 kills while the rest of the team had 23.
But while the Kings weren’t at their best, the Rattlers deserved their share of accolades. They finished with 13 stuff blocks and for stretches would reject everything coming at them.
“They played well and we expect them to be as good if not better tomorrow,” said Schulha. “But our middle attack and left side attack has to be better. Overall we made too many unforced errors and you can’t do that against a good team that’s digging everything and touching everything at the net, They brought a lot of balls back while we brought some back we need to match their defensive intensity and make smarter choices.”
Hunt also had four aces, two blocks and four digs while Froese, who didn’t start the match, finished with seven kills and eight digs. Quentin Schmidt had six kills and Tucker Leinweber nine digs.
Evan Ericson had 16 kills, three blocks and nine digs for MHC while Brett Wegner added 14 kills, two aces, four blocks and 10 digs.
Queens 3 Rattlers 0
While the Kings lacked consistency, the Queens were consistent, for the most part.
They weren’t perfect, but good enough to record a 25-17, 25-20, 25-21 victory on the women’s side.
“I was talking with Chris (assistant coach Chris Wandler) at the end of the match and was saying it didn’t feel like a regular season game,” said Queens head coach Talbot Walton. “As coaches we felt a little urgency to see if certain things have worked out and if we made the right decision to make those moves at Christmas. It will take us a little time to get polished up, but we certainly saw glimpses of high-end volleyball tonight.”
One of the moves is to use first-year setter Kirsten Sorensen and she’s starting to feel comfortable.
“I thought she was a bit nervous to start and for the first couple of sets she tried to place everything rather than just set the ball,” Walton said. “But once she settled down it went much better in her location and finding the middle. She also did a good job at the net which was a big difference-maker for us.”
Jaclyn Neufeld led RDC with eight kills, two aces and three blocks while Mandy Caroll added six kills and four blocks and Sorensen three kills, two aces, a block and seven digs and Tarah Truant six digs.
Megan Nagy had 11 kills and 10 digs for MHC while Michelle Alberts had two kills and 10 digs.
Teams meet today with the women getting started at 1 p.m.
drode@reddeeradvocate.com
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.