The St. Mary Marauders senior boys took home the bronze at the senior volleyball tournament at Carlton Comprehensive High School this weekend.
The Marauders held off the Wilkie Broncos in two sets for the victory. Coach Rene Quintal was pleased with the team’s performance in their final game of the weekend.
“I thought our guys really took the feedback from the coaches to heart,” he said. “We did a lot better job of controlling our block defensive systems when we were serving.”
The Marauders won their first playoff game Saturday morning, defeating St. Joseph of Saskatoon, before falling to the Swift Current Colts in the semi-final.
Captain Lane Vermette played a huge role in St. Mary’s win, creating opportunities on the attack, as well as coming up with clutch blocks on the defensive side. Vermette was proud of how his teammates rebounded from their earlier loss.
“The guys’ heads were a bit low during the semi-final game against Swift Current, but in this game our first line went out and did absolutely great,” he said after the game. “Our second line matched their intensity, it was perfect.”
In a tournament that featured some of the province’s best teams, a third place finish was satisfying for the Marauders. They now shift their focus to the City Championships in two weeks, where they will go head to head with the Carlton Crusaders.
Vermette said the overall confidence of the team grew this weekend, especially with having beaten the Crusaders B team on Friday.
“Obviously, their Senior A team will be a bit better, but our guys our confident that we can take that one as well.”
Quintal added that his team will have to play with an “every point matters” attitude.
“We need to approach every point like it’s the last point of the game,” he said. “We really just need to work on trying to end the rally as quick as possible.”
This isn’t the first tournament the Marauders have won this season. They also took top spot in their first home tournament of the year. Quintal’s focus right now is to keep working on their success that they’ve been having.
“We have a really good, cohesive unit that can play together, and we also have lots of team depth. Hopefully we can continue to improve on our blocking, which will help our back court defense,” he said.
Meanwhile for the Carlton Crusaders, the A team finished second in their pool on Friday night, but struggled in Saturday’s games. They dropped their first match on Saturday to Swift Current, and also dropped their games against St. Joseph and Holy Cross to finish eighth in the tournament.
The B team finished third in their pool on Friday, but also struggled in Saturday’s action. They dropped all three of their games as well to end the tournament.