Lions Fall To Queens In Four Close Sets

The 2nd place Red Deer College Queens visited the Lions' Den on Friday night and will return home with another tally in their win column. Strong attacking from their outsides and middles, particularly P.O.G. Fauve Welsh, carried the Queens to victory as the Ambrose serve receive began to crumble late into the game.

The first set saw RDC grab an early 4-1 lead, until tough serving and more consistent play from Ambrose brought the Lions back to even up the score at 16-16. The score went back and forth until the end of the set, until a missed serve from Shae Mendes ended the set at 25-23 for the Queens.

Strong serving from Rivver Flewell helped the Lions establish a big lead in the beginning of the second set, the score at one point reading 13-7. The Queens brought it all the way back to 16-17 with a run of their own, but the Lions responded with another run of strong serving to make it 21-17. From there, several untimely hitting errors from RDC made it an easy victory for the Lions and evened up the score at one set each.

The third set was another close battle, as the Lions stretched out a lead identical to the start of the second set at 13-7. The Queens chipped away at it and held the lead at 23-21 after a setting error by the Lions' Sarah Janz. Ambrose fought back at tied the score up at 24-24, but a kill from Brittney Davis and a Queens block sealed up the third set.

The fourth set saw the Queens ramp up their offensive production on the outside, while costly errors from the Lions gave their opponents a lead nearly impossible to overcome. A kill from Mady Kerr made it 19-24 for the Queens, but a missed serve handed RDC the set and the match.

Julia Kemper received Ambrose P.O.G. for her performance at leftside. Saturday night will feature a rematch between these teams in Red Deer, where Ambrose will fight to get back to .500 and Red Deer looks to challenge Briercrest for top spot in the ACAC South.

- Brent Ingram