Rustlers too much for the Queens on Sunday afternoon

Red Deer, January 14, 2024 - The Lakeland College Rustlers, who are the defending national champions, proved to be too much for the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens on Sunday evening. The Queens will host this year's Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) National Championship from March 6-9.

As anticipated it was quite the match to start off with as each team was matching each other kill-for-kill. At the midway point, the Rustlers went on a short run to give themselves a brief lead. But after some great serving from right-side Rachel Perry (Business Diploma), the Queens tied it up at 12. Following this service streak by Perry, outside-hitter Lana Matthews (Business Administration) served four in a row to give her team a 17-12 lead as they went into an RDP timeout. The Polytechnic managed to stop the bleeding temporarily with outside-hitter Lauren Junck's (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) deadly top-spin serve but it was not enough as the Rustlers took the first set 25-18 following an RDP service error.

Perry continued her great serving into the second set as she served seven in a row to help her Queens jump to an impressive 6-2 lead to start the set. But this lead was quickly diminished by a few attacking errors by RDP and the Rustlers tied it up at six. In the late stages of the set, a kill by Matthews pushed the Rustlers lead to five which forced the Queens to call a timeout. After shaking off a couple of sets, RDP fell 25-20 in the second set following Matthews' eighth kill of the match.

The Queens got stuck in a rut early on in the set as they found themselves down 9-2 with Matthews going on a service streak yet again. This time serving six in a row. Lakeland College would run away with it in the third set and take the match with a commanding 25-15 victory over the Queens.

The players of the match were awarded to outside hitters Lana Matthews of the Rustlers and Jaiden Ferguson (Business Administration) of the Queens. Matthews finished with a match-high 14 kills while Ferguson led the Queens in this category with 10.

RDP will be back in action for two matches at home against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers while the Rustlers will head up north to battle with the Keyano College Huskies. Both matches on Friday will start at 6 pm.

Players of the match: Lana Matthews (Rustlers) and Jaiden Ferguson (Queens)