MONTREAL – Rachel Leduc scored a career-high 19 points as McGill edged the Montreal Carabins 3-2 in women’s volleyball thriller in a Sunday matinee at Love Competition Hall. In a confrontation that took two hours and five minutes to play, the set scores were 25-23, 18-25, 25-16, 22-25 and 15-11.
It was the Martlets 12th conquest in the last 14 meetings with U de M.
The result avenged last week’s 3-1 loss on the Carabins court. And if it’s any indication how evenly balanced these teams are, they appear destined to meet in the post season like last year when McGill won a spectacular semifinal playoff round 2-1.
“This win was really from a contribution of many players,” said head coach Rachèle Béliveau, who once again had to operate with a short bench, missing the services of injured starters Victoria Iannotti and Meaghan Smith, in addition to Rio Pesochin. “We’ve always felt that we have a lot of depth and the came through for us again today.”
Leduc, a 6-foot-1 forward from Montreal, registered the bulk of her points on 14 kills, to go along with two service aces and three total blocks. The 21-year-old management sophomore also contributed nine digs on defence.
She was one of three Martlets to reach double-digits in scoring, a group that included Clara Poire (14 pts) and Charlene Robitaille (11.5).
A trio of Carabins also matched that feat, led by Olympe Desmedt (21.5), Milica Dlordjevic (17.5) and Florence Cloutier (16.5).
The game featured a combined 167 digs, with an 85-82 split for the Carabins. Five McGillians reached double figures in this category, led by 18 for Robitaille.
“Some of the rallies were very long today and we won most of them,” noted Beliveau. “It showed that our fitness level was very high. i felt that this was a key to defeating the Carabins today. We concluded that our fitness level need to improve after last year and the off-season strength and conditioning program that our coaches implemented was a key factor as our group trained very hard over the summer. That was very evident today after each of those long rallies.” McGill’s Audrey Trottier, the fifth-year setter from Longueuil, Que., was solid at the helm with 29 assists, in addition to five digs and an assisted block.
The Martlets had a 16-11 edge in stuff blocks, while U de M led in digs, kills (59-54), aces (7-4) and assists (56-41).
Both teams now find themselves at 3-2 and tied for third place in the newly-expanded RSEQ conference, which now has eight competing teams. The newest franchise is UQAC, based in Chicoutimi. The Inuks are 0-6 to date and will be McGill’s next opponent when they make the 465-kilometre trip to Montreal on Nov. 3 in a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.
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