Broncos beat Rattlers, back to .500

The Olds College Broncos continued their recent winning ways, pushing past the Medicine Hat College Rattlers in four sets at the Ralph Klein Centre on Friday.

In picking up their thrid straight win, Olds College (4-4) had Aidyn Phillips pacing the attack with 12 kills on 23 attempts, while Matheus Franca turned in a balanced performance on both sides of the ball, finishing with eight kills and 11 digs. The Broncos also held the advantage at the net, posting 11 blocks to Medicine Hat's eight, led by Reed Grusing with four and Phillip Sutherland with three.

For the Rattlers (1-10), the ball was almost always headed to Nathan Chernik, who paced all attackers with 20 kills on 39 attempts to go with eight digs and a block. Meanwhile, Landon Reiniger posted five kills on eight attempts, paired with three solo blocks.

After a relatively tight opening sequence to the match, the Broncos asserted themselves midway through the opening set, pouring on the pressure en route to a 25-18 win, then maintaining dominance in a 25-12 second set win. However, the Rattlers dug their heels in to extend the match by taking the third set 28-26, only for the Broncos to wrap up the match with an identical scoreline in the fourth.

Olds College will host Medicine Hat College once more at 3 p.m. tomorrow, wrapping up the pre-Christmas schedule for both teams.