Kings Volleyball split weekend with the Clippers

Caronport, SK, October 16 – It just wasn't the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Volleyball team's afternoon as they fell three straight to the Briercrest Clippers.

The Kings were able to take Friday's match against the Clippers 3-1.

But Red Deer just could not match up to Briercrest's offense and energy levels.

The Clippers came out with a lot of energy and were swinging early in the first set, and it paid off. The Clippers took an early 14-10 lead going into the Kings first timeout. Whatever Head Coach Aaron Schulha said in that break pumped up his starting lineup and came within three points of the Clippers. This would lead to Briercrest calling a timeout. After the break, the Clippers settled down and were able to take the first set 25-21. Both teams finished the opening game with 10 kills and three errors.

The Clippers would take this momentum into the second set and started out very strong once again. They would get an early on the Kings and would not look back. At one point it was 19-13 for Briercrest but the Kings stormed back with resilience and went on a 7-5 run to cut into the Clippers lead. This was not enough for the Kings to complete the comeback with the Clippers taking the 25^th point on a service error from the Kings. Red Deer had the upper hand in kills with 12, which was five more then the Clippers. But the Kings finished the second set with six errors compared to three from Briercrest.

The Kings volleyball team would show some resilience in the third set. It was a back-and-forth game with both teams swapping points and keeping the match very close. Later on in the set, it was 20-20 which is when the Clippers would go on a five-point run to finish the match and split the weekend with the Kings. It was quite a messy third set with the Kings committing five errors and the Clippers with six. Red Deer finished off the match with eight kills in the third and final game.   

Kings outside-hitter Colby Nemeth and setter Jeremy Martens were each handed their teams player of the game award. Nemeth finished the match with 12 kills, three aces and one block and Martens led his offense with 22 assists.

Next week the Kings have a bye week which means their next regular season match will be on Friday, October 28 when they travel out to Medicine Hat College to take on the Rattlers.

The match will be livestreamed on ACACTV at 8 pm.