Kings and Rattlers battle right to the wire

The Red Deer Kings were in the Snake Pit to take on the MHC Rattlers in their second game of the weekend. The Kings were hoping to ride the back of their 4 set victory the day before, while the Rattlers looked to build on a solid game. The first set started off very even, with the teams committing errors on both sides early. Medicine Hat was the victim of their own errors as a few late in the set seemed to cost them big. The Kings were able to close out the first set with a narrow 25-22 victory. 

The second set started like the first but with fewer errors. The teams were all tied up at 16 before the Kings started to open up the smallest of leads on the back of a few aces. This continued late as the Kings held on to the lead and added at the end winning 25-21 and looked to have a stranglehold on the match. 

With Red Deer up early in the third set the match looked all but over, but the Rattlers had other ideas. The Kings had a 20-17 lead late, but MHC held serve and made some key blocks to take a 23-21 lead late. A back and forth battle saw extra points with the Rattlers taking they set 27-25 coming back from 4 down in the set. 

A battle of aces started the 4th set with Red Deer taking a 5-1 lead before the Rattlers came back to go up 7-6. The back and forth battle continued as the score rose and the teams battled for every point. Net defense was a huge determining factor with the Rattlers coming up with a few huge blocks at key times. This allowed them to go from tied at 21, to a 25-23 set victory forcing a decisive 5th

The fifth set was the cleanest volleyball played all night. Both teams did not flinch and traded side-outs almost the whole set. The Rattlers were the first to break, committing an error and opening the door for the Kings. They were able to take advantage and held on by a razors edge taking the set 15-13 and a close victory.