Kings Rule Over Lions in Four Sets

Despite a much closer contest than their 3-0 defeat in Red Deer on Friday night, the Ambrose Lions fell to the RDC Kings on Saturday in the Lions Den. Kings Player of the Game Mark DeWit had 3 blocks and 14 kills out of the middle, while Lions POG Graeson Bergen picked up 12 kills.

The Lions and Kings battled throughout the first set, before the Kings took a late lead at 23-20 after a kill from DeWit. A couple of Red Deer errors and a kill from Brayden Nowosad tied the game up at 23-23, and the teams went back and forth until kills from Harry Rosewarn (10 kills, 2 blocks) and Graeson Bergen gave the Lions a 1-0 set lead, 27-25.

An early 8-3 lead from the Kings turned into nothing short of Red Deer dominance in the second set, running away with the set and winning 25-9 in less than 20 minutes of play.

The Kings came out swinging in the third, grabbing a healthy 5-0 lead before Ambrose brought it back to tie the game at 18-18. Regan Fathers (20 kills, 12 digs), currently the #1 attacker in the league, was the Kings' get-out-of-jail-free card tonight and at times looked unstoppable from the rightside. A setting error from Ryan Andres (24 assists, 3 blocks) cost the Lions the set 21-25 and put the Kings up 2-1.

The Lions and Kings continued to battle into the fourth set, and the Lions held a 19-16 lead after a few Bergen kills and a block by Andres on Ben Holmes (7 kills, 1 block) forced a Kings timeout. Red Deer kicked their game into another gear after the timeout, going on a 7-1 run to put themselves up 23-20. Ambrose, led by the serving of Mark Fountain (2 blocks, 1 ace), scored three quick points along with a Red Deer error to tie the game 24-24. A kill from Fathers and finally a block from Adam Turlejski (4 kills, 1 dig) ended the game in four sets and completed the weekend sweep.

The Lions, now 2-8, will travel to Caronport next weekend to play the Briercrest Clippers (4-6) in the final two matches of the fall semester.

- Brent Ingram (Ambrose Athletics)