Gold medals for Red Deer College

The Red Deer Kings have reclaimed their crown as champions of men’s collegiate volleyball.

The Kings, who lost in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship game last year, avenged that loss by defeating the Briercrest College Clippers 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-18) Saturday night in Moose Jaw, Sask.

The Kings entered the tournament as the number one seed and proved worthy of that ranking. The team lost only one set during the championship.

Coach Aaron Schulha said his players were at the top of their game.

“To have them play their best game of the season in the final match, there’s nothing more you can ask for as a coach,” Schulha said.

Last year RDC lost a key member of its team in the championship match and this year that happened to Briercrest as first team all-conference middle Josh Wendel was unable to play due to injury.

The first set went back and forth until RDC setter Sam Brisbane went on a serving run. His aggressive serving helped RDC go from a 11-10 deficit to a four point lead. They held on to that lead for the rest of the game winning 25-20.

The second set saw RDC go on another serving run as Tim Finnigan lead the way. The score was tied at 2-2 when Finnigan started serving and he continued serving until RDC had a 10-2 lead. Briercrest battled back but could not close the gap losing 25-19.

Despite a strong effort by the Clippers, the Kings closed out the match with a 25-18 victory.

The crowd stayed in the match right to the end trying to energize the Clippers.

“On the back of the (Briercrest fans’) shirts it said United and we wanted to make sure that that’s the feeling. With us wearing yellow jerseys it felt it was one team,” Coach Nigel Mullan said.

Graduating players Pablo Acuna and Cody Quiring were chosen as the players-of-the-game for the Clippers and Tim Finnigan was the player of the game for RDC.