Kings 3 Lions 1
It wasn’t the prettiest victory, but a win is a win for the RDC Kings.
The Kings had to scrap and claw in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference home opener at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.
It took four sets, but they eventually disposed of the visiting Ambrose University Lions (25-16, 25-21, 25-14, 25-20).
RDC dropped the opening set but started to find their rhythm a little more often as the night progressed.
“Sometimes you have to grind,” said Kings interim coach Kieth Hansen.
“It felt like we were out of rhythm and out of sync. Just fighting it for a lot of the night. I thought we did a good job hanging in there. They’re scrappy, they’re a good team.”
Australian third-year outside hitter Patrik Toze led the Kings offensively, finishing the game with 12 kills.
Middles Mark DeWit and Dillian Gauci also had strong nights, with 11 and 8 kills respectively. Tom Wass was also solid with 43 assists in the victory. Even when the Kings weren’t sharp, Wass was able to keep the ship steady.
“I thought Tom (Wass) worked hard, we didn’t pass very well, especially at the beginning of the first set. I thought he had to work pretty hard,” Hansen said.
“Our serve receive settled down a little bit, our attack efficiency out of the middle was really good for the most part, nobody gave up and everybody kept grinding.”
RDC had five service aces in the win but made 20 errors from the line which really put them behind the eight-ball in the contest.
Next up, the Kings travel to Olds College to take on the Broncos on Nov. 7, before hosting the Broncos on Nov. 8 at 8 p.m.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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