Royals return the favour and defeat the Cats

In Saturdays rematch, the Royals were looking for some payback as Bearcats helped to extend Douglas' losing streak to 5 matches, the night before.  Fresh off Friday's win, the Cats were slow out of the gate and the Royals won the 1st set convincingly 25-8. CBC regained their composure as they battled back to win the 2nd set 25-15. The Royals were even more determined and they stormed back to take the 3rd set 25-18. The 4th set could have gone either way as the Cats were looking to even up the match but to their dismay, the Royals closed out the match my stealing the set 29-27. 

It was the 1st win for the Royals since Nov. 1st when they defeated COTR in back to back  matches."Saturday night was a big win for us, we needed to have an answer for the Friday night loss and we did especially coming out with a 25-8 first set win." said Royals head coach Kyra Ianonne.  "We decided to come out aggressive and that we did, we had 23 aces for the night.

"We are still one of the youngest line ups in the league and as a team and individually these ladies are putting so much work in and learning allot, and sometimes a team has to take some dips in performance and take some early losses to keep on progressing and take that step to the next level."

The Royals top performers on the night were Juliana Penner (9 kills, 1 block, 4 aces and 6 digs), Darby Dunn (5 kills, 2 blocks, 7 aces and 7 digs) and Georgia Hurry (5 kills, 3 blocks, 4 aces and 1 dig). 

On reflection, CBC head coach Harrison said that it was a "tough start for the young Bearcats getting blown out in the first set.  However, we showed great poise winning set two.  The team battled vary hard the rest of the night but were unable to push the match to a fifth set, losing in four."  Jodi Enns had 12 kills, 7 aces and 10 digs in the loss.

The Royals now enter the league break sitting solidly in 4th place with a 6-6 record while the Cats sit in 6th with a 3-9 record.