Kings 3 Broncos 0
It wasn’t perfect, but the RDC Kings found their rhythm in the end.
RDC swept the Olds College Broncos in three sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-18) to pick up their fifth straight match victory in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference volleyball play.
Australian Patrik Toze was player of the game, as helped steady the Kings with his strong serving game and the veteran also finished with a match-high 13 kills.
Still, Kings head coach Aaron Schulha would like to see a little more consistency from his team as they head down the stretch and into the ACAC playoffs.
“Good resiliency in each set, we can’t afford to get down in each set like we did. The third was ugly for a lot of it, we got down 16-10 and then finished with a 15-2 run,” said the Kings head coach.
“Against any team in this league, you can’t afford to do that. We got a little bit lucky, we had two guys go back and put a lot of service pressure on them in Tom (Wass) and Pat (Toze) and we were able to look after it. It can’t take that kind of service pressure to start to look after the game.”
Wass, the third-year setter, was also a strong rudder for the offence, pitching in 32 assists in the victory.
While his numbers didn’t pop off the stat sheet, Red Deer product J.J. Graham contributed for the Kings in a different way Friday. Typically attacking from the left side, the second-year has been thrust into some libero duties over the last two matches. He made six digs on the night and some key passes when the Kings were trailing late.
“J.J. has been quite impressive. He hasn’t played a lot of libero for us over two years,” Schulha said.
“We’ve thrown him in there and he looks awfully comfortable there. A lot of big digs late and he looks pretty relaxed doing it. Defence isn’t supposed to look relaxed, it’s hard when guys are ripping balls at you, but he makes it look pretty easy.”
The Kings are 15-4 on the year and have clinched a playoff spot. They have five games remaining on the year.