The RDC Queens have hit a bump in the road.
After four straight wins to start 2019, RDC dropped a pair of matches to the Briercrest College Clippers on the weekend in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference play.
Saturday, it was was an uninspired three-set sweep (19-25, 18-25, 13-25) by the visitors that left the Queens coaching staff searching for answers.
“Not much to learn besides you get your butt handed to you and you have to regroup,” said Queens coach Chris Wandler.
“We’re going to have to have a quick case amnesia and almost have to realize how bad this hurts so it doesn’t happen again, then move on.”
One major issue in the loss was the Queens inability to shut down Clippers outside hitter Becky Garner. She had almost as many kills (20) in three sets, as RDC did as a team (24).
“We didn’t have Becky (Garner) on our side. She had no errors and she was hitting 67 per cent,” Wandler said.
“She had just about had more kills than we did as a team. We just didn’t perform like a championship team. It was very disappointing. Moving forward it’s one of those ones that you’re going to have to flush easy and quickly.”
A bright spot for the Queens was middle Ali Greenshields who had team-high eight kills and only one error.
“She was very efficient. We didn’t set her enough (Friday) and it was part of our game plan. Finally, Nat (Bloemen) found a connection,” Wandler added.
“(Ali) had one error on 15 attempts, eight kills. Our middles are good when we pass the ball. We didn’t pass the ball well enough in the first two sets.”
Other than that, the coaching staff hopes their third-year leaders can step up in the face of some adversity.
“I hope they respond. As a third-year, you’ve been waiting for opportunities to hit the court and you would hope there would be some response,” Wandler said.
Next weekend, they travel to Medicine Hat for a pair matches.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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