In rematch, Fathers leads Kings to 3 set victory over Clippers

In a weekend rematch, the Red Deer College Kings hit the court against the Briercrest College Clippers on Saturday afternoon at RDC. It was the final regular season match for both teams before the postseason. The Kings and Clippers have qualified for the playoffs from the ACAC Men's Volleyball South Division. 

The Kings opened the 1st set strongly and defeated the Clippers 25-10. Regan Fathers led RDC with 6 kills and 3 service aces. Harry Rosewarn had 2 kills for the Clippers.

In the 2nd set, Briercrest College led in the 1st half (7-4 and 13-9) but the Kings came back and won 25-20. Regan Fathers had a 2 set total of 12 kills, 1 assist, 5 digs and 5 service aces. For the Clippers, Javier Alvarez contributed 4 kills.

RDC opened to an early lead in the 3rd set and didn't relinquish it. The Kings picked up a 25-16 victory and an afternoon sweep of the Clippers. Ty Moorman had a match total of 10 kills, 2 assists, 1 dig and 2 stuff blocks for RDC. Bennett Rosewarn had 7 kills and 3 digs for Briercrest College.

Regan Fathers was named the Kings player-of-the-game. The Kinesiology and Sport Studies student finished with 19 kills, 1 assist, 5 service aces, 1 stuff block and 8 digs.

Kings Volleyball Head Coach Aaron Schulha was impressed with Fathers' performance.

"Regan's serve was fantastic. He really does have that ability to take over a match, whether it is that attack piece or blocking piece," said Schulha. "At times he misses too many serves, but with him getting 5 aces I can afford for him to miss a few. It's a fine line, but he did a really good job today which is nice to see and hopefully that carries on."

Schulha noted improvement from Friday.

"It was kind of what we wanted heading into the playoffs. Ty Moorman and Regan Fathers were in sync today. Our blocking was better," said Schulha. "Our transition game was really good. We made some quality digs, still able to run some speed to the outside and get our middles involved. Transition is something that we pride ourselves on. It really showed today."

To give Luke Brisbane some rest part way through the match, Ryan Beatson filled in nicely.

"Ryan came in and did a great job," said Schulha. "He's one of those heart and soul guys, ran a good offence, is really vocal and on the floor for everything. We have to be relentless on every ball."

While the Kings focused on this weekend's matches, they can start thinking about the playoffs and potential opponents.

"We have a good idea that we will face NAIT. I've looked at some video but wanted to focus on this weekend. We will cut some video, practice Monday, let the team watch video and our cut video on Tuesday to keep things as normal as possible at this point in the season," said Schulha. "NAIT has a better team than what their record shows. They had some banged up players and brought back some guys at Christmas that we saw in the quarter finals last year. They have some weapons and are a big team. A lot of what happens at this time of the season depends on the serve and pass game."

With the victory, the RDC Kings (19-5) improve to 38 points in the South Division and into a tie with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers for 1st place. The Rattlers play later on Saturday evening against the Lethbridge College Kodiaks. 

RDC will host the ACAC Men's Volleyball Championship Feb. 23-25 at the RDC Main Gym.

Prior to the match, the Red Deer College Kings recognized graduating players' Regan Fathers and Daimyn Biletsky.