Wass picks up nineteen assists, Kings sweep Broncos

Brent Forster - RDC

The Red Deer College Kings faced the Olds College Broncos in the RDC Main Gym on Friday evening, and despite earning a 3 set victory the Kings would like to elevate their game.  

The Kings quickly took a lead in the first set and extended the margin to 5 points (10-5) off a Thomas Wass kill. The Broncos tried to chip away at the deficit but the RDC Kings eventually picked up the 25-17 win. After the second set was tied 7-7, the RDC Kings started to roll and they won 25-19 with a double block to seal the set. The third set was close in the early stages (9-9), but the Kings pulled away and earned a 25-16 win for the match victory.

Kings Volleyball Head Coach Aaron Schulha thought that Adam Turlejski and setter Tom Wass made some effective plays. "We did a decent job with our middle connection, with Adam in particular, but that seems to always be there. I think Tom did a good job of picking his spots and allowing himself to be more offensive with some dump balls and a couple of combinations," said Schulha. "If we were looking after the pass a little more then we could have ran more combinations and dumped a few more balls."

Olds College played a solid match but the Kings want to be sharper with the blocking piece. "We had a couple of big blocks but we looked very late and we weren't identifying the play very well. In video it is hard to read the speed at times, but Olds passed the ball much better than what we saw in the video," said Schulha. "They played significantly better than what they did last weekend against SAIT. They ran a little quicker to the pins, but by the third set we have to adjust to that. They beat us down the line with some heavy shots and that shouldn't happen." 

Improved serving will be one goal for Saturday. "It was frustrating to miss that many serves. If we're not looking after it from the service line, we make our lives more difficult. They let us off the hook at times," said Schulha. "Tonight threw me off a little bit because we looked sharp against Briercrest and then we looked about a half step late for whatever reason. We will meet about it, figure it out and will be better on Saturday." 

Tom Wass was named the Kings player-of-the-game. The first-year setter from Adelaide, Australia picked up 3 kills, 19 assists and 1 service ace over 3 sets.

Following the Queens, the RDC Kings (3-0) will host the Olds College Broncos (0-3) on Saturday in the RDC Main Gym.