After a bit of a up and down start to the season Friday the RDC Kings looked more like the defending Alberta Colleges Men’s Volleyball League champions Saturday.
The Kings did defeat the Medicine Hat Rattlers 3-0 on Friday, but they had a much easier time Saturday afternoon downing the Rattlers 25-18, 25-15, 25-12.
“We were a little more consistent for sure,” said Kings head coach Aaron Schulha. “On Friday we experienced a bit of home-opener, first-match jitters, but today the guys came better prepared. It was more business-like for everyone as they did what they should do.”
The Rattlers simply didn’t have the depth, or the blocking, to handle the Kings, especially at the net.
Setter Sam Brisbane was outstanding, as he controlled the play offensively, moving the ball around between his outside hitters and middles.
“Chris Osborn is beginning to take over in the middle, which means things open up a bit for our outside hitters,” said Schulha. “And we did a good job of getting the ball up to Sammy who did a good job of getting everyone involved and getting them the ball.”
Tim Finnigan led the Kings with 10 kills, two stuff blocks and an ace while Braden O’Toole had eight kills, four aces and four digs. Osborn added eight kills, two aces, five digs and a block.
Schulha went to his bench in both the second and third sets and the Kings didn’t lose any momentum.
“We have a deep group, and really it’s week-to-week who will be our starters,” he said. “The next six guys off the bench are capable and don’t let down when they’re called upon, which is nice for the coach.”
While the KIngs are dominate offensively their defence wasn’t bad either.
“That’s something we’ve been working hard on,” said Schulha. “Our offence isn’t an issue and we’ll have success as long as we look after our serving and passing.”
Parker Maris had 10 digs for the Kings while Brett Young led the Rattlers with eight kills and three digs.
Queens 3 Rattlers 0
The Queens took a similar route to the Kings as they rolled over the Rattlers 25-9, 25-11, 25-21 to complete a weekend sweep.
“We were sharper than Friday,” said Queens head coach Talbot Walton. “We served well., We’ve been talking about depth in serving and whether we went short or long it enabled us to push their passers around and allowed our blockers more time to get established. It made playing defence easier as we touched a lot of stuff and allowed us to dig around the blocks, which allowed us to run our offence.”
Karissa Kuhr led the Queens with eight kills and three digs while Alex Donaghy had five kills, two aces, two digs and two blocks and Miranda Dawe came off the bench and had six kills and six digs in less than two sets.
Walton was able to use his bench in the second and third sets.
“Still it’s important that we start the same group of athletes so they’re prepared and will get into a rhythm and be able to establish some sort of control of the game,” said Walton. “That way when we make our subs they’re more confident as they’ve seen the level of volleyball being played because they’ve practiced against that group every day.
“As well it’s important for the starters to play well so the when the bench players do come in they can play freely.”
Brooke Sutter added four kills and four digs, libero Maddi Quinn had 12 digs and was the player of the match and setter Bronwyn Hawkes and Ashley Fehr both played confidently.
Madison Mitchell had five kills and five digs for the Rattlers.
The RDC faces Olds in a home-and-home series this week — Friday in Olds and Saturday at RDC.