With the RDC Queens basketball team still missing two of their top scorers — Lisa Ivanics and Karlen Majcher — the margin for error is non-existent.
A small lapse in defensive zone coverage was their undoing on Friday night as they fell 55-45 to the Mount Royal University Cougars.
“They outscored us in the fourth quarter 18-6 — we didn’t guard (Celeste Clarke) while we were playing the zone and she went off to score three threes and that really burned us.”
Despite the set back, Smyth was still impressed with her team’s effort.
They trailed the powerhouse Cougars by just two points at the half and went blow-for-blow with MRU the rest of the way until they forgot about Clarke.
They were lead by Lauren Loyek with 13 points and seven rebounds while Katlyn Olson had 13 points and nine rebounds and Courtney Loyek chipped in with seven points and four rebounds.
“It was well played we just didn’t execute for four quarters,“ said Smyth.
“Our two top scorers were out who together average 30 points a game so I thought the other girls really stepped up and played well we just didn’t pull it through.”
The Kings didn’t have much better luck losing 81-58 to MRU.
It came down to a matter of shooting and the Cougars were on fire while the Kings were throwing up bricks.
“(MRU) shot the ball extremely well — they shot over 80 per cent from the three point line and 50 per cent from the field, so they stroked the ball really well,” said Kings head coach Stef Labrecque.
]“We didn’t shoot the ball well and we didn’t execute our game plan, so we got our backsides handed to us.”
Adam Shaw lead the Kings with 16 points while Kendell Boese had 13.
The Queens and Kings are at MRU today.
l LLOYDMINSTER — The RDC Kings men’s volleyball team rebounded from an ugly first set to roll past the Lakeland Rustlers 3-1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-17) in Lloydminster on Friday.
“We were pretty awful in the first set — we came out sluggish and they came out very well and we just weren’t able to weather the storm in time to take them over at the end (of the set),” said King’s coach Aaron Schulha.
“But we played well the next three sets.”
They were carried by Taylor Hunt who had 29 kills with four service aces and two stuff blocks.
“Darcee (Froese) is out with an injury and so we slid Taylor over to the right side and he was completely dominant,” said Schulha.
“He put the team on his back and we needed him to do that today.”
The Queens had a tough night against the Rustlers losing their match 3-2 (12-25, 21-25, 27-25, 26-24, 5-15).
“We were never in this match the entire way,” said Queens head coach Talbot Walton.
“It was a real difficult one to watch, I almost had a lot of empathy for our athletes.
“You could tell they wanted to play well, they just couldn’t figure out how to do it.
“Our veteran players are the ones we have to rely on to play well and if they looked shaky the rest of the team is bound to follow that. If it’s true what they say you lead by example, then our leaders just aren’t good enough for everyone else.”
RDC plays again this afternoon in Lloydminster to complete their weekend doubleheader.
l EDMONTON — The RDC Queens continue to struggle to put it altogether as they lost 6-2 with an empty netter in to the NAIT Ooks on Friday.
Carrying a fairly young squad, the Queens have had difficulties getting all their veterans to show up on the same night.
“We played hard, but we were making some real bad mental errors and it was some girls who shouldn’t be making those errors,“ said Queens head coach Rob Weddell.
“Our vets have got to come ready to be the difference makers in our games and we tried to put a challenge to them tonight and they didn’t step up and meet the challenge that we set for them.
“It’s never the same one every night . . . but we don’t seem to have all of our veterans firing at the same time and that’s when we get into trouble.”
Montana Noyes and Shelly Sushelnitsky accounted for the Queen’s two goals while Kendra Lakeman made 32 saves on the night.
The Queens directed 35 shots at the NAIT net.
The Queens are now done for Christmas.