Rattlers over Volleyball Kings

The Red Deer College Kings Volleyball team entered Friday's match against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers down a few key student-athletes. The Rattlers seemed motivated to knock off the ACAC Men's Volleyball South Division leading Kings, and won in three sets.

Medicine Hat came out quickly in the opening set and held leads throughout, including up to 7 points (17-10). The RDC Kings seemed out of sync early, committing untypical errors. The Rattlers eventually took the first set 25-19. 

Medicine Hat College took an early lead in the second set and extended that lead by 6 points (19-13). The Kings couldn't climb back into the set and the Rattlers won 25-19.

The Kings tried to push back in the third tying the Rattlers at several points. Eventually Medicine Hat College won 25-22 and took the match.

Kings Head Coach Aaron Schulha thought that even with a shorthanded roster, the Kings would have shown a higher compete level.

"Without a few key players I thought that we were deeper than what we showed. I thought that we would be more competitive than what we were without those guys in our lineup," said Schulha. "It's hard when you're shorthanded and a lot of guys were making errors. I think we are deeper than what we showed but some guys wasted some opportunities."

Looking ahead to Saturday, Schulha would like to see several areas improve.

"If we can make less serving errors tomorrow and keep the pressure on then we can give ourselves a chance," said Schulha. "We were able to put some sustained service pressure on them and build some rhythm but not nearly enough. We will have to piece it together and come up with a somewhat new game plan tomorrow. We had some passing issues today. Ultimately it comes down to our execution and for a lot of that match we were way too predictable."

Ryan Beatson was named the Kings player-of-the-game contributing 34 assists, 1 service ace and 2 digs. 

The Kings face the Rattlers in a rematch at the RDC Main Gym Saturday, Oct. 29 at 3:00 p.m.