MONTREAL – Freshman Anica Pineault of Boucherville, Que., scored a game-high 21.5 points, including 16 kills, as the top-seeded UQAM Citadins defeated McGill 3-1 to capture their first-ever RSEQ women’s volleyball championship, Saturday. The set scores were 27-25, 18-25, 25-21 and 25-17 in a confrontation played before a spirited crowd of 447 at Love Competition Hall.
UQAM swept the best-of-three series, including the opener 3-0 on Friday. It marked the first-ever championship for the Citadins, who joined the Quebec-based conference in 2015-16. The result ended McGill’s reign as defending league champions but the Martlets claimed silver for the sixth time in school history. Both RSEQ finalists had already booked their tickets for the U SPORTS Final Eight national championship, hosted by UBC in Vancouver, B.C.
“We tried to push as much as possible, to get some energy but credit to UQAM, they were ready to play. They were on us and always seemed to be in the right spot,” said Martlets head coach Rachèle Béliveau, who remains one win shy of her 700th career victory in 32 years (31 seasons) as bench boss at McGill, a mark that she will be gunning for at Nationals.
“In the first set we were close to winning but UQAM found a way to come back and win. That could’ve changed the momentum. We competed hard but our concentration was not at the level it needed to be. We had some really good moments, great digs and spectacular plays but weren’t able to maintain the level of consistency needed to win. But I’m still proud of the girls and the fight that they have shown in the playoffs. We now have a week and a half to reset and prepare for our opener at Nationals.”
The Martlets had three players reach double digits in scoring, led by Clara Poiré, a kinesiology senior from Blainville, Que., who had 15 points, on the strength of 13 kills, one service ace and a pair of assisted stuff blocks. She added four digs and two assists.
Co-captains Charlene Robitailleof St. Jean, Que., and Victoria Iannotti of St. Laurent, Que.,contributed 12.5 and 11 points, respectively. Robitaille registered five kills with four aces, 3.5 blocks, 11 digs and one assist, while Iannotti had 10 kills, two assisted blocks and 13 digs.
McGill, which had a 20.6 per cent hitting efficiency during the regular season, could only muster an 8.9 success rate with 44 kills and 30 errors in 157 kill attempts. UQAM was only marginally better, connecting on 12 per cent with 39 kills, and 21 errors on 150 attempts.
The Martlets had the edge in digs (77-64) but UQAM had a upper-hand in stuff blocks (17-9) and aces (8-7).
The contest took exactly two hours to play, including an eight-minute delay to repair the net with UQAM leading 23-21 in the third set. After play resumed, it took less than a minute for UQAM to score consecutive points to take a 2-1 lead. That set featured a spectacular rally that touched 39 players before UQAM scored a decisive point to knot the score at 19-19.
This game was the final home appearance for two McGill seniors that are expected to graduate, namely Catherine Vercheval of Ste. Julie, Que., and Meaghan Smith of Vancouver, B.C.
UQAM, which finished atop the RSEQ conference with a 13-5 record, will head to Nationals with a 4-0 mark in post-season play and they would likely be seeded anywhere from fourth to sixth, based on the last Top 10 rankings. The Martlets will head west with a 23-12 record overall, including a 12-6 mark in regular-season play and a 2-3 playoff record. The cross-town rivals could cross paths again in the tourney semifinal. As RSEQ finalists, McGill will likely be seeded seventh or eighth in the tourney, which means that they would face the first or second-seeded team, respectively, in the quarter-final round.
The Martlets are slated to depart for Vancouver on March 15, two days before the U SPORTS Final Eight tourney begins. It will mark the team’s fifth trip to the Nationals, where they previously finished sixth in 1997, third in 2012, tied for seventh in 2016 and ended up fourth in 2022.