Clippers over Kings in Saskatchewan

Brent Forster - RDC

The RDC Volleyball Kings faced the Briercrest College Clippers Friday evening in Saskatchewan, and while the Kings had opportunities the Clippers won in three sets (25-22, 25-18 and 25-23).

The Briercrest College Clippers have been playing good volleyball lately and they have climbed the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Volleyball South Division standings. The Clippers sit in second spot with 24 points.

Hamish Hazelden led the way for the Kings with 8 kills. The 6'7" Kinesiology & Sport Studies student added 3 digs, 2 stuff blocks, 1 assist and 2 service aces. Setter Jacob Rapin contributed 22 assists and 3 digs. Evan Parchomchuk finished with 7 kills and Adam Turlejski had 6. Taylor Klassen led the Clippers offensively with 14 kills.

Kings Volleyball Head Coach Aaron Schulha saw some opportunities slip away in the match. "Our serve-receive did not allow us to be successful tonight. It is a tough gym to play in with a low roof but the Clippers also have a very solid serving team that forced us into a lot of trouble on serve-receive. We had reasonable leads in the second and third sets and we just weren't able to side-out," said Schulha. "It was very frustrating to see our players put themselves in a good position by playing solid volleyball only to give it away late. Our opponents have been consistently outplaying us late in matches. We need to find ways to be aggressive, but still play smart, at key times."

The Kings (9-8) will face the Clippers (12-5) in the second match of a weekend road trip on Saturday, January 20 at 3:00 p.m. The RDC Kings share fourth spot with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers (9-8). Both teams have 18 points.