The Red Deer College Queens women’s volleyball team has potentially ended their first semester on a high with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-19) sweep over the SAIT Trojans on Saturday in Calgary.
Due to the winter weather on Friday, the Queens’ (10-1; 31-6) home date with the Trojans was postponed, leaving them in second place in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference South Division.
They are two points behind the Briercrest Clippers (11-1; 34-10), the only team to beat them this season, but hold one game in hand.
“We’re starting to see more consistent play,” said head coach Talbot Walton.
“Our outside hitters are learning to make really good decisions and are understanding how to get the ball back and get to the attack. Those processes are starting to fall into place and everyone is getting a little bit better every week and every day. That’s all we’re asking for so that by the time we’re in February we’re playing at a high end.”
Though they swept the Trojans on Saturday, the match was far from easy, especially easy as they were slow out of the gate, forcing Walton to burn a time out mid-way through the first set.
“Once we got that taken care of I thought we started to play really quite well and started to dictate the play,” said Walton.
They responded positively and ran away with the final two sets.
Megan Schmidt was named RDC player of the game with seven kills one dig and one block.
Setter Bronwyn Hawkes, meanwhile, had a strong game with 22 assists and 10 digs, and libero Maddi Quinn was big in the back court with 20 digs in the three sets.
“Bronwyn I thought was really good for us and probably had one of her better matches ... she was just really steady and getting the ball to the hitters in a really good spot,” said Walton. “Maddi’s defence was really good, she made about four or five continues, digs that would probably hit the floor on most teams, but she found a way to keep it up off the floor.”
The Queens have not secured a makeup date with the Trojans for Friday’s game but are trying to set it up for this coming week.
• The RDC Kings (10-1; 31-9) needed five sets to beat the Trojans (7-4; 23-14) 3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 17-25, 15-11). Luke Brisbane was named Kings player of the game after three straight stuff blocks in the fifth set rallying RDC from a 9-5 deficit.
The first year setter finished with four kills, six blocks, eight digs, two aces and 42 assists. All-Canadian power Tim Finnigan led the Kings with 22 kills.