For the first time in seven years, the RDC Kings will not compete for a national volleyball title.
The Kings won their final match of the Alberta College Athletic Conference season Saturday in five sets over the Medicine Hat College Rattlers (25-15, 24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 15-13), but failed to qualify for the playoffs.
RDC technically finished fourth in the ACAC south division after the win, but with the Rattlers hosting the conference championships, the Kings were pushed to fifth. It’s the first time in nearly three decades that RDC won’t play in the ACAC playoffs.
The Kings are also the two-time defending Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association men’s volleyball champions.
“There was a good team that was going to be left out of the playoffs and unfortunately, that was us. You have to look no further than losing all four to SAIT. Every other team ahead of us took at least one off them. To me there’s no excuse for one of those, let alone two,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha.
“It hurts. It sucks with the run that we’ve had. To go to nationals last seven years, which means we were in the ACAC final each of the last seven years and to see it come to an end this way, by not even getting into the conference championships is hard.”
Their final match against Rattlers served as almost a microcosm of the entire year for the Kings. They came out strong in the first set, then struggled through the middle, only to push back late. Schulha said in the end, that just wasn’t good enough.
“The first set was smooth then it was a whole lot of up and down. We can blow teams out, then allow them to blow us out or make it close. But it was way too up and down,” he said.
“They rested two of their starters. Their best middle and two Brazilian guys. And we still weren’t able to exploit some significant weaknesses.”
Ben Holmes was the leader offensively for RDC in the victory Saturday, with 15 kills and five aces. While his performance stood out, it was the contributions off the bench from players like third-year Steven Keating who had nine kills on 15 attempts or second-year Parker Biletsky who had four kills in four sets.
Setter Tom Wass also continued to show promise, earning player of the game honours and 42 assists along with 10 digs in the loss.
“In the fourth set, it was nice to see guys like Steve (Keating) and Parker (Biletsky) step up. Guys that will be back for us next year which is important,” he said.
“It’s important for those guys to be put in pressure situations. That was a promising sign. Tom (Wass) continues to do things that are really, really good for a first-year kid. I’m excited to see what he can do with some more weapons around him next year.”
The Kings also only have one graduating player this season, with middle Ben Hankins moving on to pursue a career in teaching. Hankins had five kills on Saturday.
“He’s been really good. It took him a long time to figure out the speed of the game,” Schulha said.
“He’s just continued to work his butt off and like I said pre-game he’s just a great guy. He’s a really bright guy too, and it’s time for his next chapter.”
Saturday was also the final pair of RDC volleyball games at the main gym, as play is expected to take place in the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre next year.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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