The Kings avoid the upset and win the match in five sets, Carlson leads his team to victory

Fort McMurray, February 23, 2023 ­– The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings gave their home crowd quite the scare but managed to win it in five sets with the final set being 16-14 against the Lakeland College Rustlers.

In the only meeting between these two teams, the Kings came out on top in four sets. It was a very close match with the biggest point difference throughout the match being just four points.

It was not the start the Kings wanted as they went down early and were forced to take a timeout in the early stages of the first set. They would pick things up later on in the opening set of this last quarterfinal match of the day but that was not enough as the Rustlers continued to hold the lead in the late moments of the set. The Kings managed to fight off just one set point as the Rustlers would wipe a kill off a one-man block to take the first set 25-21.

It was a much better start for the Kings as they came out on all cylinders in the second set. After an ace from setter Maddux Greves (Business Administration) put his team up 12-8, the Rustlers decided to call a timeout. The Kings put on quite the show in the late stages of the second set to pull away from the Rustlers to prove that the first set loss was just a hiccup in their season. A return off a serve went straight over to the Rustlers side of the court and with some miscommunication, the Polytechnic would take the game 25-15 to tie it up at one.

The third set was much closer as the teams were just exchanging points midway through the set. But the Rustlers managed to pull away late to put them up by two which led to a timeout called by Kings Head Coach Aaron Schulha. RDP would battle back to within one point of Lakeland right before the Rustlers called a timeout. Following the short break, the Kings got a huge block from outside-hitter Noah Carlson (Open Studies) and middle-blocker Spencer Purdie to tie it up at 22. But the Polytechnic would drop it 25-23 as they would send it long on their kill attempt out of the middle.

With their championship defense on the line, as they were down 2-1 in the match, the Kings battled hard to begin the fourth set and looked to extend the match to five sets. But down 12-10, the Polytechnic would use another one of their timeouts to go over their game plan. The Kings would battle back to tie it up late in the set before taking a four-point lead. The Polytechnic would take set 25-21 after a kill error from the Rustlers power hitter.

The Kings put forward their best set of the match and came out fiery to prove a point to the Rustlers. RDP had an 8-4 lead diminish down to 9-8 and later on the Rustlers tied it at 11 which led to a Kings timeout. The Kings Volleyball Program avoided the scare and won the final set 16-14. The Polytechnic was down 14-12 at one point but still managed to take the set and match after scoring four straight points.

Outside-hitter Noah Carlson was named the player of the match as he was no doubt the team's best player on the court in the five sets. He was counted on to keep his team alive with multiple kills.

The Kings will play tomorrow night at 8 pm against the Keyano College Huskies.