DeWit and Kings sweep Trojans at RDC

Brent Forster - RDC

Red Deer, AB – Mark DeWit had an effective and efficient performance from the middle, leading an adjusted Kings' lineup to a three set decision over the visiting SAIT Trojans (25-20, 25-22 and 25-22).

"The result is always nice," says Kings Head Coach Aaron Schulha. "It's a good 3-0 win." 

The Kings opened the first set 10-2 and then the Trojans responded with a 6-1 run.

"We were really smooth for the first half of the first set. We were in control, but they picked it up a little bit," says Schulha. "After that there were some really good moments and then runs of errors. It was us shooting ourselves in the foot, getting stuck in certain rotations with some receive issues combined with some hitting errors."

As a team, the Kings had 43 kills and 19 attack errors.

Mark DeWit was named the Collegiate Sports Medicine Kings Player-of-the-Game. The third-year Business Administration Marketing student recorded eight kills, four digs and one stuff. DeWit, who is from Lacombe, finished with a 0.800 hitting percentage.

Jonathan (JJ) Graham moved from outside hitter to libero in Saturday's match, totaling eight digs and one assist.

Graham (12)

"With Shae McIntyre being another option on the left-side in the second half, JJ's been one of our more solid receivers and defenders as a left-side player. When we've tried him on position five on defence, which is typically where a libero plays defence, he has been lights out. He had six or seven digs in the first set. He's kind of proving us right," says Schulha. 

"Zak Hallworth has been great for us too. It's just a different look and makes it tougher on the opposing team, so they don't know what to expect. We did play JJ at libero against SAIT at exhibition time over the break, so he's used to seeing their serves as well. He was pretty smooth. It's good to have some internal battles in certain positions."

Tyler Latu'ila received the top player award for the Trojans. He finished with eight digs, six kills, one stuff, one assist and one ace. Ayden Rust had seven kills.

Latu'ila (4) and DeWit (8)

Kings setter Thomas Wass stacked up 33 assists, seven kills, four digs and a pair of aces. First-year Carter Hills picked up 13 kills, six digs, four aces and one stuff block.

Trojans setter Andrew Seguin totaled 25 assists, eight digs and one ace. Brendan Vanderlinde chipped in with six kills.

The RDC Kings took the edge from the service line (eight aces to three).

The depth of the Kings has been valuable.

"We played a fairly different lineup than we played yesterday, which is nice. It's nice to have multiple options in certain positions now and give guys like Ben Holmes a little bit of a break," says Schulha. "He's fighting a little bit of a shoulder issue. It's important for a few of the older guys."

Next weekend the third place RDC Kings (14-4) will face the Olds College Broncos (4-16) in a home-and-home series.

"We haven't played great, I don't think, the past three matches at home," says Schulha. "We will look to make a change next week and come out guns ablazing and try to sustain that throughout the match."

The south leading SAIT Trojans (16-6) will host the Lethbridge College Kodiaks (15-3) on Friday, Feb. 14 at 8:00 pm.