Queens 2
Mariners 3
The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens suffered a heart breaking loss on Thursday night.
They came back from down 2-0 to force a fifth set but fell to the Vancouver Island University Mariners 3-2 in the semi-finals at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Volleyball National Championship.
The first set came down to the wire.
Down 24-19 the Queens stormed back to tie it at 24. After plenty of back and forth, the Mariners got the upper hand 32-30.
In the second set, it was more of the same. Both teams couldn’t get more than a few points ahead before they’d come back to tie it.
That was until the Mariners pulled away by three points at 20-17 which led to a 25-21 victory for Vancouver.
The Queens responded in the third set jumping out to an early lead en route to a 25-20 victory.
They kept their momentum going in the fourth set. Despite the Mariners providing plenty of pushback, the Queens came out on top 25-21.
However, in the final set, the Queens made a few costly mistakes. Missed defensive plays as well as a few close calls by the referees that went the Mariners’ way, gave them a 15-10 victory.
Head coach Talbot Walton said in the first set they got a call against that he felt changed the outcome.
“We wouldn’t have ended up in that spot but we worked really hard in the third and fourth to get ourselves into that opportunity to play a fifth set,” he said.
“It might have been just a little bit too big a moment for us at that time and we just couldn’t find ourselves enough to relax… They executed just a little cleaner. We played hard and I’m really happy with our performance. It was a good effort by us.”
Red Deer was led by Emma Holmes who had 13 kills followed by Lauren Junck and Rachel Perry who both had 12 kills each. On the defensive side, Francesca Sandini led with 18 digs.
Mariners Aime Skinner also had a big night with 26 kills.
The Mariners will now play the Lakeland College Rustlers in the gold medal game on Saturday night.
The Queens don’t have much time to ponder the loss. They’ll take on the Nordiques de Lionel-Groulx in the bronze semi-finals on Friday at 8 p.m.
“This tournament is tough now because you’ve got to turn around and play a team that lost out in the first round… We’re going to have to recover quickly from it and find a way to be motivated for an opportunity to get to Saturday again.”
Friday night’s game will be a must-win for the Queens. If they come out on top they’ll play for the bronze medal on Saturday at 6 p.m.
