
It was a successful weekend at the 5A Girls Volleyball provincials in Weyburn for both the St. Mary Marauders and Carlton Crusaders.
St. Mary finished second in Pool B thanks to victories over Saskatoon Holy Cross, Regina LeBoldus and Regina Miller. The Marauders lone pool play loss came against Balgonie.
St. Mary would fall short of repeating as provincial champions after a loss to Saskatoon St. Joseph in straight sets in the quarterfinal.
Marauder head coach Shaun Hunko says he was pleased with the weekend as a whole.
“We had a really good pool play. We finished second in our pool which put ourselves in a favorable matchup in the quarterfinal and just came up a little bit short probably due just a little lack of experience overall as a team. (I’m) really happy with the weekend and I can honestly say that we got the most out of our athletes this season.”
St. Mary graduated eight players from the team that won the gold medal on home court in 2023. With the Marauders holding their own against some of the province’s top teams at provincials, Hunko says they were able to exceed a lot of expectations.
“At the start of the year, we planted that seed that we could do something special and get to provincials. I think a lot of people doubted us mainly for the fact that we lost eight players from last year’s gold medal team. It took a lot of work and the girls bought in and they worked extremely hard. As the weeks went on, they started to gain more experience and confidence. Probably the last three weeks of the year, we were playing our best volleyball and it carried us.”
With St. Mary returning several players to the team next year, Hunko says he is hoping their year’s provincial appearance will pay dividends down the road.
“It was an absolutely invaluable experience. Anytime you can go to provincials, just soak it in and experience it all is definitely going to help as opposed to not making it. Hopefully they can draw on this year’s experience and next year if we’re able to get there again we can apply that knowledge and maybe go a little further.”
Carlton overcomes early adversity for spot in top eight
The Carlton Crusaders didn’t get off to an ideal start in Weyburn.
Carlton dropped their first three matches against Swift Current, Saskatoon St. Joseph and Regina Campbell and were in danger of missing the playoff bracket.
The Crusaders were able to knock off Weyburn in their first match on Saturday to earn the final spot in the playoff bracket.
Crusader head coach Tori Glynn says she was proud to see Carlton fight through the early adversity to keep their season going.
“It was nice to see our team bounce back after a couple tough losses on Friday. We had a really exciting match against Weyburn and were able to qualify for the quarterfinals. I think it’s a lot of the stuff that we were able to do at regionals, we took into the provincial tournament. I think we did some growing and building even in just that short time within a week.”
In the playoff bracket, the Crusaders were eliminated in the quarterfinal by Balgonie, who went onto finish as the provincial silver medalists. The 2024 Crusaders only had two Grade 12 players on their roster.
Despite Carlton falling short of the podium at the tournament, Glynn says there were plenty of positives for the Crusaders to build on in future years.
“We were really proud and excited for the team to qualify for provincials. We had a really great experience. Weyburn was a great host for the event and we were able to play some really high level competition. It was exciting to be able to be in that quarter final against Balgonie and we obviously didn’t get the results that we wanted, but we’re hoping that with our younger team, they’ll take that experience and be able to use it.”
“I think that sport especially high school sport teaches us a lot of valuable lessons in leadership, teamwork, cooperation and being adaptable. I’m really excited for this team. I hope that a lot of those things that we worked on and learned about during the season will contribute to their experience as a team.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca