The St. Mary Marauders opened the 2025 Saskatchewan 5A High School tournament with a loss to the Aden Bowman Bears, but rebounded with a straight sets win over LeBoldus on the first day of competition.
The Marauders are hosting the tournament, with games split between St. Mary and Prince Albert’s Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus. Marauders head coach Rene Quintal said it was great to have the hometown crowd backing them.
“There’s a lot of support from family and friends, and it was kind of different last time (the Marauders played LeBoldus) in Regina,” Quintal said. “It was kind of different, where they had all their family and friends. It definitely helped us out that second set.”
St. Mary opened the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Aden Bowman (25-18, 25-18). Quintal credited the Bears for playing tough, mistake free volleyball.
“That’s one of the best high school volleyball teams I’ve seen in 23 years coaching in Saskatchewan,” he said. “I expected us to struggle with them with our age—seven Grade 10s—but I thought in the last match against LeBoldus we were able to play a solid game plan.”
St. Mary won the first set against LeBoldus 25-19, then held off a furious LeBoldus charge in the second set to win 25-22.
Quintal said the Marauders lost to LeBoldus twice over the Thanksgiving weekend, and that experience helped them in provincials.
“We learned some lessons from playing them,” he said.
The Marauders finished the day with a late game against Estevan. Results were not available by press time.
Aden Bowman leads Pool B with a 3-0 record, followed by Estevan at 2-0 and St. Mary at 1-1. Walter Murray and LeBoldus are both winless, sporting 0-2 and 0-3 records respectively.
The Marauders are back on the court Saturday morning to take on Walter Murray at 11:15 a.m. at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
Carlton opens tournament with close loss
The Carlton Crusaders opened their provincial tournament with a close 2-1 loss to Lloydminster (25-22, 22-25, 15-10). The Crusaders followed that up with a 2-0 loss to Miller High School out of Regina (25-15, 25-22).
Carlton ended the opening day with a match against the Swift Current Colts. Results were not available by press time.
Carlton closes out Pool A play against Holy Cross out of Saskatoon. Game time is 9 a.m. on Saturday.
The finals are scheduled for 5:45 p.m. on Saturday at the St. Mary gym.
