KYLE — Where there was smoke, there was fire – and a bit of provincial sport history as well.
Kyle beach volleyball coach Brittany Marshall can add that latter bit to her resume after guiding the Saskatchewan duo of Alexa Smith (White City) and Erika Markentin (Saskatoon) to a bronze medal at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, Nfld.
Smith and Markentin reached the podium by extinguishing Alberta with a three-set win (17-21, 21-19, 15-13) Saturday.
That game was played just seven hours after the opening serve in the pair’s semifinal game, which also went three sets (18-21, 21-17, 15-12) in a loss to Quebec.
The Smith-Markentin squad opened the Games with a three-sets loss (6-21, 21-10, 15-6) to New Brunswick and a three-sets win over Manitoba (21-17, 16-21, 15-10), both on Aug. 11, before wrapping their preliminary round with a straight-sets loss (21-19, 21-18) to Quebec three days later.
“I was confident we had a chance at the podium with Alexa and Erika,” Marshall told SaskToday in a Wednesday email. “Their dedication to the sport and the sacrifices they made for two years mattered in that final set. During pool play, we faced all the elements we faced at home during training - smoke, rain, heat, and wind - and all at different times. We were postponed for two days because of a fire near the competition venue. Not resuming play was a very real possible outcome.”
The round-robin results set up Saskatchewan’s quarterfinal match against British Columbia, where Smith and Warkentin prevailed in three sets (11-21, 21-17, 15-11), before the semifinal loss to Quebec and eventually bronze match victory.
“I'm incredibly proud of them individually but more so as a pair,” said Marshall. “They are gamers, didn't settle for less than what they believed they were capable of, and it shined in our last two sets against Alberta.”
Marshall is among 12 athletes, four coaches and two mission staff from southwest Saskatchewan participating in this year’s Games, which conclude Aug. 25.
Other Saskatchewan coaches for the Games include Steven Michaluk (male box lacrosse) and Jacqueline Powell (female swimming) from Swift Current and Val Marie’s Brad Clifford (male cycling), while Cabri’s Denise Levorson and Maple Creek’s Anne Weisgerber are among those serving as mission staff for the province.
Shaunavon’s Mason Fauser also brought national hardware back to southwest Saskatchewan, helping the province to bronze in the male baseball tournament.
Saskatchewan finished third after a 4-2 win over Prince Edward Island on Saturday.
Batting fifth in the order, Fauser played third base in the team’s first, second and fourth games, going 2-for-9 at the plate with a pair of singles, two runs scored and five strikeouts.
Also a draft pick of the Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos, Fauser additionally threw two pitches in relief during the eighth inning of Saskatchewan’s 8-7 extra-innings win over Quebec on Aug. 13. The second of those throws forced a Quebec hitter to ground into a double play, ending the visitors’ half of the inning before Saskatchewan scored two runs in the bottom half to win the game and advance to the semifinals.
Saskatchewan won its tournament opener 8-1 over Alberta and followed that up with a 10-5 win over Quebec before dropping a pair of decisions 10-2 to Ontario and 2-0 to B.C.
The province then lost its semifinal game 9-4 to Quebec, setting up the bronze medal match against P.E.I.
Coming up before the Games conclude, Swift Current runners Rowan Reimer and Carter Tuplin will both compete for gold in the 400 m male hurdles Friday evening. Tuplin won his heat in 55.93 seconds while Reimer was third in his own heat at 55.94 seconds, both times placing among the top eight overall in the preliminary runs. Both athletes are coached by Tuplin’s mom Mandi, a former track and field star with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
