This week in Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics

Lastly, the Kings Basketball team will look to extend their season on Saturday night against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers in a play-in game. If they win, they will move on to face the St. Mary’s University Lightning in Calgary on Saturday for a spot in the ACAC Championships hosted by Ambrose University on March 2-4.

Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Championships

Queens (12-7) vs Keyano College Huskies (13-6)

• Thursday, February 23 | 6 pm at Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

After a bye week, the Queens will look to start their championship defense on Thursday as they take on the Keyano College Huskies at 6 pm in the quarterfinals of the ACAC Women’s Volleyball Championship. This will be the third match out of four on the day.

Head Coach Talbot Walton explained his team feels ready to compete for another championship banner.

“The start of the regular season schedule was unfriendly to a team that was going to be relatively new and young. The second half was going to be where we could make some moves and really start to build on that team that was getting prepared for championships. The games that we lost were very close and we learned a lot of experience things from them. In the last two games of the season, we were able to hang and finish which is what elite teams need to do.”

The last time these two teams faced off was back in November when the Huskies swept the Queens in three straight sets. But as Walton stated, this team has grown and has been playing a lot better since the start of the second semester.

Kings (17-2) vs Lakeland College Rustlers (12-7)

• Thursday, February 23 | 8 pm in Fort McMurray

Along with the Queens, the Kings will too defend their championship title this week, starting on Thursday with a match against the Lakeland College Rustlers at the ACAC Men’s Volleyball Championships hosted by Keyano College.

Head Coach Aaron Schulha said the mental aspect of the game is just as important as the physical part of the game.

“We have talked about the mental part of the game a few times over the last couple of weeks, in particular our serving game. This is one skill that you are in complete control over it. We talked with the guys about what are you thinking about, how are you going through your routine and all those things because we are missing far too many serves.”

The Kings just played the Rustlers once this season back on November 19. The men won it in four sets and will look to repeat this result as they look to win their third straight championship.

Hockey

Queens (12-3-1) vs NAIT Ooks (12-1-3)

• Friday, February 24 | 7 pm in Edmonton

• Saturday, February 25 | 7 pm at Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

The Queens Hockey team will look for a couple of big victories in their hunt to take over first place from the NAIT Ooks, whom they are playing against this weekend. The Polytechnic’s women’s hockey team is coming off two victories against the SAIT Trojans to finish off the season series and the Ooks are coming off a rare defeat against the Olds College Broncos who beat NAIT in a shootout this past Saturday.

Head Coach Kelly Coulter stated with championships coming up it is important for the student-athletes to stay healthy.

“If you can run four lines and six defense, generally it gives us more experience and keeps us healthy, so I think that’s the number one thing. Lastly, playing the way we want to play and not allowing the opposing team to dictate how the game is going to go like continuing to attack with pace and put pucks on net with net traffic.”

The Queens sit in second place just two points back of the Ooks which means back-to-back wins would place them in first place with just two games left after this weekend.

Kings (16-5-1) vs Concordia University Thunder (8-11-3)

• Friday, February 24 | 7 pm at Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

• Saturday, February 25 | 7 pm in Edmonton

The Kings now have the top spot locked in after back-to-back wins against the NAIT Ooks which means they will get a bye to the semi-finals of the ACAC playoffs. But they still have two games left on the schedule as their regular season finishes this weekend with two games against the Concordia University Thunder.

Head Coach Trevor Keeper explained it simply feels good to lock up first place in the conference.

“We finished second and a point out first before the pandemic and later on went through a rebuild. This year we knew our capabilities, but we were a young team still. We had to learn from some close losses in the first semester when we had the lead slip away from us. It is a big accomplishment to finish first place and have the home-ice advantage during the playoffs.”

The season series between these two teams is split with one loss and one win. The Kings managed to win 4-1 at home but fall 3-0 in Edmonton.

Basketball Play-in Game

Kings (13-8) vs Medicine Hat College Rattlers (9-12)

• Friday, February 24 | 7 pm in Calgary @ St. Mary’s University

As the Kings look to return to the championships, they will have to go through the Medicine Hat College Rattlers and possibly the St. Mary’s University Lightning. If the Kings manage to defeat the Rattlers, they will face the Lightning on Saturday for a spot in the championships on the line.

Head Coach Darren Graham said the men are excited for this weekend.

“I know the guys want retribution against Medicine Hat as they defeated us twice early on in the season before we picked things up and went on a six-game winning streak. We just have to prepare mentally, physically, get our guys with bumps and nicks healthy and be ready to compete. I know our guys can hang and compete with any team in the league, so I am excited for the weekend.

Since being defeated by the Rattlers in November, the Kings have gone 13-4 which bumped them all the way up to fourth place in the South Division. The two games against Medicine Hat College were settled by three points or less.

by Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics

This week in Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics

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