Queens 3 Broncos 0
The RDC Queens were in a groove Friday night.
For the second straight match, the Queens rolled over the Olds College Broncos in three straight sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-18) in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference play.
Queens second-year right side hitter Emma Holmes led the way, finishing with eight kills on 14 attacks. She also had two aces in the contest and was player of the game for the home side in the win.
“Emma has grown a lot from last year to this year, luckily Chris (Wandler) had the foresight to play her a lot and Emma work hard in the gym and got physically stronger as well. We need her to be a good leader,” Queens head coach Talbot Walton said.
“She’s been very offensive for us, she’s working hard at improving some of those other areas that needed improvement to get to that next level. She served a bunch of balls, last year that wouldn’t have happened. She just didn’t have that same velocity.”
Friday was also a carryover from Thursday’s sweep at Olds according to Walton.
“I thought both nights we did a really good job of passing the ball so that our setters could run some good offence and when we were serving, we controlled the match pretty well– put them out of system and gave ourselves more controllable balls,” he said.
Fifth-year Erin Nuefeldt, second-year Alexandria Greenshields and fourth-year Jade Van Dyke all had seven kills in the victory, while first-year setter Emma Letkeman had 31 assists.
Tabitha Martin was the player of the game for the Broncos, she finished with 10 Kills and led the way for the visitors.
With the Queens rolling, Walton was also able to get some playing time for a number of first-year players, including local products Jaiden Ferguson, Edyn Aasman and Kira Weddell. He noted that’s big for their development and also somewhat of a dream realized.
“We had to scratch a few athletes so we make sure the right rotation was here tonight so some of those local Red Deer kids can get in and their moms and dads can see them,” he said.
“That’s a time period in their volleyball career that I hope they remember.”
After four match losses in October with a tough schedule, the Queens have won their last four matches in a row.
Next weekend, the Queens will hit the road to take on the Medicine Hat College Rattlers for a pair of matches.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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