Neufeldt and Queens sweep visiting Rattlers

Brent Forster - RDC

Red Deer, AB – The Red Deer College Queens adopted a playoff mentality Friday evening against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers, earning a three set home win (25-16, 25-15 and 25-20). It was the Queens' 20th win in their past 21 matches. 

"We know that Medicine Hat hasn't won a couple of their last games and that's worrisome as a coach. Not too sure what you're going to get from a team that's trying to get ready for that first round of provincials," said Queens Head Coach Talbot Walton. "We treated it like a first round sort of idea, where we need to make sure we come to do business really well and try to be as efficient as possible."

The Queens' attack was balanced and effective, finishing with a 0.424 hitting percentage. The Rattlers offence swung for 0.127 efficiency.

The Collegiate Sports Medicine Queens Player-of-the-Game Erin Neufeldt accumulated 13 kills, eight digs, one ace and one stuff, and impressively hit for 0.632 per cent efficiency.

"I thought our power hitters did a really good job of that today. I think Erin hit over 0.500 and had only one error, on a poor set," stated Walton. "Tess was scoring very consistently, hitting the ball hard too, so I think those two when they get going like that give us such a balanced attack and we can score."

Pearman (8)

Ponoka's Tess Pearman contributed 11 kills, two digs and two aces.

Brooke Christie received the top player award for the Rattlers, totaling nine kills and seven digs. Teammate Shaya Suchy had seven digs. Amber Stigter pitched in with five digs and four kills.

RDC libero Kaylee Domoney recorded 11 of the Queens' 36 digs, along with two assists. Domoney has 996 career digs and an opportunity to surpass 1,000 in her final match.

Setter Emma Letkeman contributed 34 assists, one dig, one stuff and a kill.

"We got a couple of big digs. You expect people like Kaylee to get her digs, but Erin, Tess chipped in with a couple there. Jade came off the bench. Edyn came off the bench. Emma got two there in that last set that were really quite difficult balls to dig," said Walton. "We were working really hard to make sure that we were standing in the right positions. I thought we did a good job placing ourselves in spots where the ball should go."

Edyn Aasman had five digs. Red Deer's Emma Holmes totaled seven kills, six digs, three assists and one ace. Jade Van Dyke finished with two kills and an ace.

The Queens, who were recently ranked fifth in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), recorded seven aces. The visitors had five.

In the final regular season match, the second place Queens (20-3) and Rattlers (8-15) will hit the court at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

The Medicine Hat College Rattlers will host the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Women's Volleyball Championship from Feb. 27-29.