Queens 3 Broncos 0
RDC Queens volleyball head coach Chris Wandler had Friday, Nov. 11, marked on his calender for some time now.
It was the first meeting between the Queens and the Olds Broncos, who Wandler coached for the past five seasons.
“It’s a bit tough as you develop relationships … there were a few people I’ve spent some time with over there,” he said. “But you want to compete against them, and you also realize they have a bit of excitement as well.
“But it’s done. You try to treat it as another game, but I did have the calender marked since June.”
Wandler got the upper hand on his former team, recording a 25-22, 25-17, 25-23 victory at RDC.
The Queens started a bit slow in both the first two sets, but were able to pull their game together when it mattered.
“We were focused when we needed to be … we did a good job when we were behind,” said Wandler. “We need to find that level between being relaxed and focused, not relaxed and out of it. We still need to find that ideal state of mind to be playing in.”
What the Queens did do was spread their offence around with five players recording at least four kills. Miranda Dawe led the way with 15 kills and eight digs. Megan Schmidt had seven kills, two aces and two blocks, while Jessica Jones added five kills and three aces. Brittany Davis chipped in with five kills and nine digs and Hanna Delemont had four kills. Chantelle Kayser had 26 assists and four aces before Ashley Fehr came in the third set and finished with six assists.
The Queens finished with 10 aces and seven service errors.
“I thought our serving was more on aim than in Briercrest,” Wandler said. “It wasn’t good there at all. We weren’t striking the ball well. Tonight we served with more confidence and we gave ourselves a chance to play for the point.
“We also talk about keeping constant pressure on the opponent and you can’t do that by missing serves.”
The Queens also did a better job of blocking as the match wore on.
“Right now we’re not a great blocking team, we’re losing track of the attacker. We should be taking dead aim and should be on her. We’re ball watching too much, but as the match wore on we did a better job with the angle and timing,”
Janelle Neyron led the Broncos with nine kills and six digs while Delaney Pysar added five kills and 10 digs. Setter Jamie Craig had 24 assists.
Kings 3 Broncos 0
The Broncos have only two players with any college experience and it shows in the standings. They came into Red Deer with a 0-6 record and have yet to win a set. They didn’t have any better luck Friday as the Kings used their bench to record a 25-8, 25-12, 25-15 victory.
“We made a few too many errors late in that last set, but in the grand scheme of things these are tough matches to play,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha. “I thought we did a good job of keeping our energy and Ryan (setter Beatson) did a good job of doing that and making sure the other guys didn’t get complacent.”
The only backup who didn’t see action was power hitter Ben Holmes, who will start tonight in Olds.
“He knew that. We wanted to get everyone in tonight and tomorrow who doesn’t receive significant time,” explained Schulha. “It’s important plus they deserve it. They do a good job at practice and being ready. This will help down the road if we need them to come in.”
The Kings finished with 16 service aces with nine errors.
“We still missed a few too many at times,” said Schulha. “I didn’t think we served the heck out of the ball. It was OK, we just let them off the hook at times.”
Beatson was named the RDC player of the match with 27 assists, two aces, four digs and a kill. Parker Biletsky had eight kills, five aces and four digs, Scott Irvine six kills, two aces and five digs, Matt Lofgren five kills, four aces and three digs in two sets, and Ben Hankins five kills in a little over a set. Waylon Auger had eight kills for Olds.