Volleyball Kings defeat the Trojans in five sets

Prior to the first serve the Red Deer College Kings raised their 2016 CCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship banner and it seemed to spark them early.

The RDC Kings began the opening set strongly, going on a 6-2 run. RDC extended the lead 15-7 and eventually won the first set 25-10. Regan Fathers led the Kings with four kills and six digs. 

SAIT opened the second set with two straight points and held several leads throughout. The Kings battled back tying it 24-24 and the Trojans called a time out. SAIT pulled away 27-25 to even the match up at one set. In set two Kinesiology and Sport Studies student Brian Grenier had three kills and one dig for the Kings. As a team the RDC Kings had nineteen total kills and seventeen digs after two sets.

Red Deer College began the third set outscoring the Trojans 6-2, but SAIT climbed back into the set tying it up at 14 and 23. The Trojans went on to win 26-24. Matthew Lofgren contributed four kills and one dig in the third set for the Kings.

In the fourth set the Kings jumped out to 6-4 lead on a powerful kill by Regan Fathers. The Trojans called a time out when the Kings took a 21-17 lead. Fathers was a key contributor with five kills and one dig in the set and nailed the final point to end it 25-18, tying the match at two sets.

Nothing separated the two teams during the first eight points in the final set with both sides tied 4-4. RDC opened up a 10-6 lead to a loud opening night home crowd who cheered on every point. The Kings continued to press and defeated the Trojans 15-6 to win the match three sets to two.

The Kings Head Coach Aaron Schulha thought that the banner raising provided energy.

"Raising the championship banner this evening seemed to spark us early," said Schulha. "We started off well including a good warmup."

Despite the victory Schulha would like to see the low end of the Kings game improve.

"Early in the season I am happy with our 'A' game," said Schulha. "I think that the low end stretches of our game are too low right now."

The crowd and intensity of a fifth set created a good atmosphere.

"We played a good team tonight and it was a battle right until the end," said Schulha. "With the match going to the fifth set in front of a large crowd, it felt like it was a playoff game."

Regan Fathers was very effective tonight and was the recipient of the Kings player-of-the-game. The Western Australia native finished with a total of twenty kills, six service aces and nine digs. As a team the Kings finished with a match total of forty-six kills, thirteen service aces and thirty-nine digs.

The Kings next play at Lethbridge College Oct. 21 and 22 as they face the Kodiaks in a weekend series.