VANCOUVER – Ansah Odoom of Surrey, B.C., scored a game-high 22.5 points as top-seeded Trinity Western defeated No. 8 McGill 3-1 in quarter-final play at the U SPORTS women’s volleyball championship, Friday, at UBC’s War Memorial Gym.
The set scores were 25-16, 25-22, 23-25 and 25-13.
The defending national champion Spartans, who have won four consecutive Canada West conference crowns, improved to 6-1 lifetime against McGill. Currently 37-3 on the season overall and 6-0 in post-season play, TWU advances to a Saturday semifinal dance with No. 5 Dalhousie at 9 p.m. (Eastern).
The Martlets, who dropped to 23-13 overall, will rendezvous with fourth-seeded UQAM on Saturday at 4 p.m. (Eastern) in a rematch of the RSEQ conference championship. UQAM was relegated to the consolation round after being upset 3-0 by fifth-seeded Dalhousie in an earlier quarter-final.
“I’m relatively pleased with our performance, I don’t think that we could have played much better against what is probably the best team in the country,” said McGill head coach Rachèle Béliveau, who remains one win shy of the 700-victory plateau. “But at the same time, we have to be fully focused, 100 per cent of the time at this level and if you relax a little, have a some bad rotations and give away a few points, that hurts. This is what happened to us a few times today.”
McGill’s 25-23 victory in the third set was only the second set dropped by the Spartans in six post-season contests.
Odoom, who was named as Trinity Western’s Mikasa player of the game, racked up 20 kills with four blocks. She was one of four Spartans to reach double-digit scoring, along with Kaylee Plouffe (16 points), Meaghan Mealey (15) and Savannah Purdy (12). Setter Dora Komlodi was credited with a whopping 56 assists.
Clara Poiré, a kinesiology senior from Blainville, Que., was named as McGill’s Mikasa player of the game. She paced the Martlets with 18.5 points on the strength of 16 kills, and 2.5 stuff blocks. A 6-foot-2 southpaw who plays on the right-side, she added nine digs and registered a lofty 32.6 per cent hitting efficiency, with just two errors on 43 kill attempts.
“Clara played a strong game, both offensively and defensively and also on serve receive,” Beliveau said. “I was very pleased with her performance and the fact that we had three players with more than 10 kills against that team.”
Teammate Victoria Iannottiof St. Laurent, Que., had 11 kills and a solo block, to go along with a dozen digs. Also reaching double-figures was Montrealer Rachel Leducwith 10 kills, an assisted block and five digs. One of her digs was a rare kick saveat the net that was redirected over by Catherine Vercheval when McGill was trailing 17-7 in the final set.
Co-captain Charlene Robitaille of St. Jean, Que., added 9.5 points for McGill.
Sophomore Charlotte Chouinard-Lalibertestarted for the ninth consecutive game in place of injured McGill setter Audrey Trottierand collected 37 assists, along with one kill, three aces, five digs and a pair of assisted blocks. Trottier finally made her first appearance since suffering an upper-body injury on Feb. 5 against UQTR. The physical therapy senior was subbed in a few times over the last three sets and was credited with five assists and two digs.
TWU posted an impressive .300 hitting percentage, will 66 kills and 18 errors on 160 attempts. The Martlets operated at a .205 clip, around their season average, with 45 kills and 14 errors on 151 attempts. McGill had a 9-6 edge in blocks, while both teams managed six service aces. Trinity Western also held an 81-62 margin in digs.
The upcoming consolation round matchup with UQAM, which is based only a few kilometres away from the McGill campus, will mark their sixth meeting of the season and the Citadins went 4-1 against the Martlets.
“To travel all the way out west and play a team from our conference isn’t ideal (for our development),” Beliveau said. “But you can be sure that we will be looking for revenge.”
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