Kings win in four to stay undefeated while the Queens suffer their first loss of the season

Red Deer, October 28, 2023 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings continued their winning ways with a scrappy four-set victory over the Ambrose University Lions. Unfortunately, the Queens could not battle back from two sets down and the Lions would take it in the fourth set.

See below for more information regarding each match.

Women's Volleyball – Ambrose University Lions 3 at Queens 1

The Ambrose University Lions bounced back in a positive way as they defeated the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens in four sets, a day after the Queens swept the Lions in three straight.  

For the first few points of the opening set, the Lions and Queens were just exchanging points but Ambrose would pull away to take a 12-8 lead. In the late stages of the match, the Queens would slowly diminish the Lions lead with some great serving from outside-hitter Emma Holmes (Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences) and tie the match up at 21. It was neck-and-neck from here with the Lions finding that crucial two-point lead when it mattered most to take the set 26-24.

Some great serving by middle-blocker Jailyn Stouffer (Legal Assistant) to start the set helped the Queens bounce back and take an early lead. But Lions outside-hitter Lauren Huntley (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) would return the favour by going on a run of her own from the service line to tie it up at eight. The Queens would pull away to take a 17-13 lead backed by a Holmes service run which led to an Ambrose University timeout. But the Lions were not out as they battled back to take a 22-19 lead backed by some great blocking at the net by outside-hitter Faith Solecki (Bachelor of Science in Biology). Ambrose would take the second set 25-22 off a solo block from outside-hitter Jillian Bieraugle (Bachelor of Science in Behavioural Sciences).

Facing defeat, the Queens changed up their lineup and were ready to fight to stay in the match. But a service run by Solecki helped the Lions jump out to a 12-8 lead in the third set. But the Queens were able to dig themselves out of their early hole with some great serving to take a 20-15 lead into the Lions final timeout of the set.  Ambrose would gain two points on the Queens but it was not enough as the Polytechnic would take the third set 25-18.

The Lions would jump out to an impressive 14-7 lead over the Polytechnic before Head Coach Talbot Walton called a timeout in hopes of stopping the bleeding. Following the timeout, Ambrose would gain two more before the Queens would take advantage of a service error but not before middle-blocker Brooklyn Deol (Business Administration) served seven in a row. Facing match point, the Queens would score four points to come within five of the Lions with both outside-hitter Jaiden Ferguson and middle-blocker Raya Roesler picking up two kills. But it wasn't enough as out of the Lions timeout, Solecki would pick up her eighth kill of the match to take the fourth set 25-19.

Head Coach Talbot Walton explained the Queens worked hard but it did not show on the scoreboard.

"We worked hard but it didn't really help us flow better and run our systems. Every time we got some momentum going, it was either too late in the set or we were not able to sustain it quite yet."

The players of the game were awarded to Lions Lauren Huntley and Queens Autumn Roos. Huntley had 10 kills while Roos had five in the match.

The Queens will be on the road next week starting in Grande Prairie as they take on the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves while the Ambrose University Lions will have the bye next week but will be back in action on November 11 when they host the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings at 4 pm.

Men's Volleyball– Ambrose University Lions 1 at Kings 3

Opening up the match was quite the set between the Kings and Lions as they were exchanging points with one another until Ambrose University managed to take a two-point lead that would put them ahead for most of the set. But the Kings pulled ahead when it mattered the most to take a 23-21 lead into a Lions timeout. Ambrose would back battle to within one but a missile of a kill from middle-blocker Dillon Gauci (Bachelor of Kinesiology) gave the Kings a 25-23 set victory.

In yet another neck-and-neck set, the Lions managed to pull ahead of the Kings to take a 20-17 lead which was followed by a timeout called by RDP. One big difference at this point in the match was Ambrose had 13 kills and was putting them away over 50 per cent of the time while the Polytechnic was under a 40 per cent kill efficiency.  While the Kings made an effort to come back, the Lions would find the equalizer to tie the match up with a 25-23 victory after a serve from setter Emmitt Juul-Hansen (Christian Studies) trickled over the net causing chaos on the Kings side of the net which led to the ref calling a centre line violation on the home squad.

Following a setback in the second set, the Kings jumped out to an early 6-2 lead in the third with help from middle-blocker Spencer Purdie (Open Studies), who made it quite difficult for the Lions to set up anything on offense. But after back-to-back blocks on outside-hitter Colby Nemeth, the Lions found themselves just three points back at the halfway point of the set. In the end, the Kings would bounce back and take the third set 25-18 off Nemeth's ninth kill of the match.

The Kings would take the early lead in the fourth set and not look back as they held on to it right until the end with the final score being 25-16. Setter Tom Wass (Open Studies) had a couple of aces to close out the match.

Head Coach Aaron Schulha said it was definitely not the best match the team has played so far this season.

"We were able to win the middle battle tonight which is something we could not do last night in Calgary. But they served us much better tonight and it really showed on the scoreboard. They really made us work for our points and at certain points, they were even able to get us out of our systems and not run the floor the way we want to do every night."

The players of the match were awarded to Lions Kade Miller and Kings Spencer Purdie. Miller had a team-high 14 kills while Purdie finished with nine kills and two blocks.

The Kings will be on the road next weekend with their first stop being at Northwestern Polytechnic for a battle against the Wolves while the Lions will have a bye next weekend with their next match on the schedule being against the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings on November 11.