The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings and Queens volleyball wrapped up a successful slate of weekend games on Saturday.
Both the Kings and Queens swept the visiting Medicine Hat Rattlers in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference action.
The Queens won in three straight sets on Friday and again on Saturday, coming out on top 25-18, 26-24, and 25-10.
Queens’ head coach Talbot Walton said he was happy with their performance but the Rattlers didn’t make it easy on them.
“I’m happy we were able to take care of our side,” he said. “Medicine Hat played better today. They dug a lot more balls so they adjusted their defence to where they’re supposed to stand…
“We weren’t quite as successful today, so I think we were just grinding away to find a solution. Luckily we got a good start to the third set and just continued that momentum.”
Queens Jaiden Ferguson led the way with 10 kills for Red Deer. Meanwhile, Francesca Sandini and Emma Holmes each had nine digs in the victory.
The Queens are hosting the CCAA Women’s Volleyball National Championship from March 6-9. Walton explained they’re still in the process of solidifying their rotations ahead of the tournament and will continue to experiment with different lineups.
“It is good to have some depth but we also do need to solidify it a bit more so there’s less of that anxiousness of [being subbed out]. That negative thought I think creeps into a lot of athletes’ minds but thankfully we do have that depth for those changes of needed.”
For the Kings, they won their first game on Friday 3-0, but on Saturday, the Rattlers didn’t go away quietly. The Kings won in four sets 3-1 losing the second set 26-28. The Kings came out on top of the other three sets 25-21, 25-13, and 25-16.
Head coach Aaron Schulha said they weren’t happy about dropping the second set but overall he thought his team competed hard.
“We didn’t do a great job receiving serves early in terms of being aggressive in the seams. It was almost like we came into it expecting a similar type of pace on the serves as yesterday,” he said.
“To beat a good team that we have they’re going to have to take a few more chances from the line. I thought later along in the match we got better in terms of weathering their potent servers.”
Kings Colby Nemeth led the way with 14 kills followed by Noah Carlson with 10. Nemeth also led the team with nine digs on Saturday.
Schulha added they were better at blocking shots. They were also able to get everybody some playing time throughout the weekend.
“The guys who came off the bench did a pretty solid job for us so I can’t complain.”
With the wins, the Queens improved to 12-3 overall and the Kings improved to 10-2.
They’ll both hit the road next weekend for games on Friday and Saturday at Briercrest College.