The Queens move into second place with a sweep of the Kodiaks

Red Deer, November 26 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens looked for a sweep over the Lethbridge College Kodiaks this afternoon as they were able to defeat the visiting team last night three sets to one. Last night, the Queens looked at outside-hitter Jaiden Ferguson to lead their offense as she finished with 20 kills, but player of the game Frankie Santini helped her team stay in the rally multiple times.

For the Kodiaks, it was their player of the game Jamie Brown who had an impressive game on offense and defense. She finished with 17 kills and 16 digs. Brown and Ferguson coming into this game sat in the top three in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference in kills-per-set and total kills.

Before the game, Lethbridge College, and Red Deer Polytechnic sat tied for second place in the South Division with a 5-3 record.

Halfway through the opening set, it was no one's game. Both the Kodiaks and Queens were fighting to take the lead but, in that time, the opposing team would battle back and tie it up. It stayed close for most of the set until RDP went on a 6-0 run and put the Kodiaks off their game plan. The Queens went on to win the first set 25-16 after a swinging error by Lethbridge College kept the ball on their own side, giving the home team the set clinching point.

Like last night, the Queens came out strong in the second set and would storm out to a 13-8 lead. After the Kodiaks made some substitutions, they would come back within two after a 7-4 run of their own, which is when Head Coach Talbot Walton called a timeout to regroup his team. After the break, the visiting Kodiaks got an impressive double block on the outside to come within one of the Queens.

The RDP women had the chance to kill to clinch the set win but were stopped with a double block on the right-side and the Kodiaks continued to battle back coming within one. Out of the timeout by the Queens, outside-hitter Lauren Junck (Bachelor of Psychology) got a nice set from Danielle Wiens and would clinch the second set 25-23 with a kill that went straight down on the hardwood.

The Queens would use this momentum and continued their strong efforts on the net as well as their defense with Santini showing off why she was last nights player of the game. The Queens would take a 16-11 into the Kodiaks first timeout of the set. Out of the timeout, Kodiaks middle Shane Fowlie was able to get a direct kill to give the ball back to her team, which encourage a late surge by the Kodiaks. But it wasn't enough, and the Queens would cruise to a 25-19 victory with a kill from Ferguson to clinch the match.

The players of the game went to outside-hitters Mack Lewicki of the Kodiaks and Sydney Rix of the Queens. Lewicki finished off her afternoon with nine kills and six digs. For Rix, she was all over the court with five kills, five digs and two blocks.

The Kodiaks will be back in action next week for a doubleheader against the Briercrest College Clippers and the Queens first semester of game play is done until January 13 when they take on the Concordia University Thunder in Edmonton.