Queens Volleyball drop one in Edmonton to start the second semester

Edmonton, January 13, 2023 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens Volleyball team started their second half of the season with a loss against the Concordia University Thunder. The Queens are coming off their winter break sitting in third place with 12 points but have three matches less then the Ambrose Lions and the Lethbridge College Kodiaks, who sit first and second in the ACAC South Division.

It was quite a slow start for the Queens to kickoff their 2023 year as they battled from behind the whole first set and never once had the lead, but they still continued to fight throughout the opening game against the Thunder. The Queens would drop the first set 25-22 after a Thunder kill caught the fingertips of the block.

But a much different Queens team showed up in the second set as they went on a 7-0 run to start things off before the Thunder called a timeout. Concordia had their chances to score but a very defensive RDP team kept the rally alive with multiple diving digs. It took a small break for the home team to pick things up as they scored back-to-back points out of the timeout. But RDP let Concordia back into the match and it was a neck-and-neck finish until set point, when outside-hitter Jaiden Ferguson (Business Administration General) ended it with a kill to tie the match up at one.

They would take their second set victory momentum and finally start playing like their first-semester selves. The Queens were able to group together points and go on runs to put the Thunder down early. But Concordia battled back in the last five points to really make it into a much tighter third set before Head Coach Talbot Walton called a timeout for his Queens. RDP failed to capitalize on three set points to end the third set and the Thunder tied it up at 24 before taking the set 26-24.

But once again the Queens showed off their adversity and shook off that comeback loss by the Thunder by coming out with a 110 per cent effort to take an early 12-6 lead into a timeout called by Concordia. However, the Thunder found a way to make it interesting by cutting RDP's lead into half. But it was Ferguson who would kill it for the fourth set and help her team to a 25-21 victory.

However, they could not complete the comeback as they dropped the fifth set 15-11 to the Thunder in Edmonton.

Middle-blocker Autumn Roos (Open Studies) was named the Queens player of the game.

RDP will head back home for their biggest match of the semester as they take on The Kings University Eagles at 6 pm tomorrow night.