A Carlton player spikes the ball against the St. Mary Jr. boys team during St. Mary's annual 5A Sr. Boys Volleyball tournament on Sept. 5, 2025. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

High School Volleyball

St. Mary, Carlton feeling confident as teams compete in first tournament of season in P.A.

Sep 5, 2025 | 5:22 PM

High school volleyball teams from across Saskatchewan are in Prince Albert this weekend for the first big scale tournament of the season.

The first points were scored Friday afternoon at St. Mary High School where 16 boys’ teams from around the province are competing.

Rene Quintal has held the reins of the St. Mary senior boys volleyball team since 2014, and said he’s feeling pretty optimistic about the season, and is looking to get the group back to the top of the mountain.

“We have three returning players from our team that had won a Provincial Championship in 2023, and we had a really successful season up until regionals last season. We have six Grade 10s from our junior team who were successful last year and so, I like where we are at this point of the year based on how young we are.”

Despite the youthful look to the Marauders this season, the expectations remain the same.

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“We have high expectations here, but I think just with the level of athleticism we’re starting with, I think we can get to where we want to be toward the end of September, early October.”

“The group itself is a close group,” Quintal continued. “We’ve got some really good on-court chemistry.”

The same could be said for Carlton, who are also competing this weekend.

Head Coach Matthew Lueck is in his first year as head coach of the team and came from Birch Hills, where they and Carlton combined for the season last year so he has some familiarity entering the year.

“5A volleyball is always fun to coach, it’s super competitive. We got a lot of returning guys, so it’s exciting and I’m excited to work with the group we have.”

With the rust shaken off following their first couple games of the season, Lueck said he liked what he saw out of his team early on.

“Across our whole roster, we got everybody some playing time, and everyone went in and made some positive plays. We’re in a good spot to start the season and definitely have something good to build on.”

The final games of Friday are set to begin at 8 p.m. at St. Mary, and will continue Saturday morning at 9 a.m. The gold medal game is slated for 6:30 p.m.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

On Bluesky: @loganlehmann.bsky.social