The road to another national title will be long and winding for the RDC Kings volleyball team, but the pursuit started on the weekend with a sweep of the Briercrest College Clippers.
RDC topped the Clippers in three straight sets Saturday (25-15, 25-18, 25-21) with relative ease, but head coach Aaron Schulha said there’s a long way to go before his team should be satisfied.
“Pretty consistent, the end is going to stick with me a little bit where we allowed a pretty significant run. They’re a good team, they’re well coached and they have some guys that can really go after their serves. We can’t expect them to go away without a fight,” Schulha said.
“We were able to use both of our setters in a starting roles and both of our liberos in a starting role. That shows our depth…there’s still a lot of internal competition with our group for those starting spots. That’s going to help us moving forward.”
Scott Irvine led the attack for RDC in the win, notching eight kills on just 10 total attacks. Kings rookie middle Mark DeWit was three-for-three on the day with kills and also had four blocks. Although they were credited with just seven digs in the win, Schulha said the scramble game from his team was a big part of the victory.
“(Scott) had a great game, I thought Mark DeWit our young middle had a really good game. Our defence was the difference for most of that match,” Schulha said.
We were digging a whole ton of balls and frustrating them. That’s usually what Briercrest does to other teams. They usually defend the heck out of the ball. I was pleased with our effort in general. When they would rattled off a few runs here and there, we wouldn’t get too flustered.”
The serving game was also hugely improved for the Kings on Saturday, with 11 aces compared to just two for Briercrest. Although the Kings don’t plan on blasting aces past their opponents, a consistent serving game is something they hope to stress if they want long term success this season.
“We always look for a 1:2, ace to error ratio,” Schulha said. “We were doing a better job of hitting our targets. Forcing them to move into seams and moving them forward and back a bit. The service area was a little bit better, I think it can be a real weapon for us. It will be a constant work in progress.”
The Kings will be back at home with a pair of games next weekend against the Olds College Broncos.
Email sports info and tips to sports reporter Byron Hackett
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