The St. Mary Marauders and Swift Current Colts senior boys volleyball teams have faced each other on a number of occasions this season, with the Colts coming out victorious in every meeting.
It was the same story over the weekend in Saskatoon, as Swift Current defeated St. Mary in the provincial final in two sets, taking home the gold, and sending the Marauders back to Prince Albert with back to back provincial silver medals. The Marauders were beaten in the 2019 final against Meadow Lake as well.
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get the end result we were looking for,” Marauders coach Rene Quintal said. “The final game exemplified our whole season. We struggled with unforced errors in the early part of every set, but once we started reducing our errors we did a good job coming back. We just weren’t able to overcome the lead that Swift Current had.”
In the provincial final against the Colts, St. Mary found themselves down 21-9 in the first set, but fought their way back into the game, only losing 25-19. In the second set, it was a back and forth battle, with the set going to 28 points. St. Mary held off three match points, before falling 28-26, and finishing second place.
“I’m really proud of the team and how we battled back in every set,” Quintal said. “The team definitely didn’t quit in the end. We battled hard when we needed to, so for that, I’m proud of them.”
Looking back on the season, Quintal said he liked how coachable the club was, and how well they got along. Both of those things helped propel them to provincials.
“We had a really solid group of players,” he said. “It was a very good team and everyone got along with each other really well and it was a really social group.
“It was a lot of teaching at the start of the season, and once we lost a few matches in the middle of October, I think we really bought into what we were preaching. I think if we could’ve reduced our mistakes a little more, we could’ve been provincial champions this year.”
St. Mary finished second in their pool during round robin play, beating Saskatoon Centennial, Carlton, and Regina Martin, while suffering their only round robin loss to Swift Current. They defeated Lloydminster in the quarter final and Centennial again in the semi final, clinching a spot in the final with the Colts.
The quarter final game against Lloydmister was a thriller. After winning the first set 25-22, the Marauders pulled out an exciting 30-28 second set win, advancing them into the semis, where they took down Centennial 25-22 and 25-20.
In the final, they came up just short, losing 19-25 and 26-28 to Swift Current.
This is the 11th silver medal in the Marauders school history at the 5A level.
The Carlton Crusaders boys and St. Mary girls also competed in provincials this year, but both clubs saw their runs come to an end with quarter final exits.
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca
