RDC Kings sweep Huskies, advance to gold medal game
In the final match on Friday, the RDC Kings hit their home court to compete against the Keyano College Huskies. During the regular season, the Kings finished 2nd in the south while the Huskies placed 1st in the north and held the best record (22-2) in ACAC Men's Volleyball. The winner would face the Medicine Hat College Rattlers in Saturday's gold medal game.
The RDC Main Gym was loud with both Keyano College and Red Deer College supporters. The RDC Kings jumped out to an early lead (6-4). The Huskies tied the score on a few occasions (15-15 and 20-20) but the Kings persevered and took the opening set 25-22. Regan Fathers led RDC with 6 kills. Jakub Zdybek picked up 7 kills for Keyano College.
Just over half-way through the 2nd set, the 2 teams were tied 14-14. The RDC Kings went on an 11-6 run to cap of the set 25-20. Over both sets, Luke Brisbane accumulated 24 assists for the Kings. Devin Varga picked up 20 assists for the Huskies.
After the 3rd set was tied 11-11, the Kings went on a 14-12 run to win 25-23 and cap off a match victory.
Regan Fathers was named the Kings player-of-the-game. Fathers contributed 16 kills, 1 assist, 4 service aces, 1 stuff block and 3 digs. Justin Delorme was chosen as the Huskies player-of-the-game. Delorme finished the match with 6 kills, 2 digs and 1 stuff block.
Kings Volleyball Head Coach Aaron Schulha credited the Huskies on a strong effort.
"The Huskies are a solid team," said Schulha. "They have 2 big strong middles, are well coached and we knew that they would be tough."
The Kings' block was very effective.
"I thought our blocking was very smooth today. Keyano runs a little higher offence than what we're used to in the south. Briercrest is extremely fast. Teams in general like SAIT and Medicine Hat that we see quite often - it's a little bit flatter to the outside," said Schulha. "The height of the outside set allowed our middles to close and do a pretty good job. They had some success out of the middle and we made some changes late. Adam (Turlejski) had a key block late. There were good changes throughout the match and it was a complete match for the most part."
While the Kings earned a spot to compete at the CCAA Men's National Volleyball Championship with the victory, their focus is on Saturday's gold medal match.
"It's great for us to extend our season but we have 1 more to go before we think about that," said Schulha. "It's a tremendous feeling and I think that's the 7th year in a row that we've qualified for nationals. We want to win it all at home and still have 1 game to go."
The RDC Kings will face the Medicine Hat College Rattlers Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for gold. Keyano College will face SAIT in the bronze medal game Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Earlier today, the Medicine Hat College Rattlers defeated SAIT, the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves defeated The King's University and the Briercrest College Clippers won over the NAIT Ooks.
