QUEBEC CITY – Clara Poire scored 27 points and Charlene Robitaille added 25.5 but it was all in vain as visiting McGill fell 3-2 at Laval in women’s university volleyball, Friday. In a marathon match-up that took two hours and 27 minutes to complete at Centre PEPS, Laval won 25-23, 17-25, 25-20, 23-25 and 15-11.
Perhaps a bus breakdown on the Pierre Laporte bridge played a minor role in McGill’s slim setback. The Martlets were forced to call for an Uber taxi service to complete the final 10 minutes of their 245-kilometre odyssey to Quebec City.
It was a key conquest for the Rouge et Or, who improved to 6-4 in the RSEQ conference, one win behind McGill (7-4). The result avenged Laval’s 3-2 loss to McGill on Nov. 11 and snapped a three-game win streak for the Martlets, who had won six of the previous seven.
Both teams combined for 133 kills, 160 digs and 128 assists as the high-powered Quebec league continued to post astronomical numbers rarely seen in these parts. McGill had one of its better passing ratios on the season with a team average of 1.93 serve-receive (out of 3).
“We’ve been talking about the resilience of the team this year and we certainly had some challenges to start today with the bus situation,” said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau. “But overall, we played quite well and every set was very close, right until the end. Except we made some bad mistakes at the wrong time and that was the difference. Also, Laval seemed to make more big digs at key times in the game than we did.”
Poiré, a left-handed, right-side hitter from Blainville, Que., registered 24 kills and now leads the nation in both kills (140) and points (164.5) over her 11 games played.
Robitaille, a senior middle-blocker from St. Jean, Que., collected 21 kills, 4.5 blocks, 16 digs and five assists. She also registered a season-high 2.61 passing ratio (out of 3) on serve-receive.
“When the games are this close, you generally need to have three good hitters with over 15 kills each,” noted Beliveau.
Victoria Iannotti, McGill’s left-side power-hitter was held to 8.5 points after scoring 29 in the previous game. Meaghan Smith, a veteran middle-blocker from Vancouver, B.C., tallied eight points.
Setter Charlotte Chouinard-Laliberte, a psychology junior from Montreal, registered an impressive career-high 55 assists, just one shy of the single-game school record set by Thara Dawoodjee on Nov. 5, 2016.
Justine Raymond paced Laval with a game-high 27.5 points, on the strength of 23 kills. She was one of four Laval teammates that scored in double figures. The others included Roxane St-Amand (19 pts), Eloise Ross-Tremblay (17.5) and Leonie Goupil (10).
The provincial rivals have now split their two confrontations with one more remaining, on Jan. 14 at Love Competition Hall, a 6 p.m. event that will also serve at the McGill volleyball alumni Homecoming Game.
The Martlets had to wait close to an hour after the game for a replacement bus to return home as the mechanical problem on the first vehicle was determined to be with the gearbox differential.
McGill, which has an overall record of 9-5 including preseason play, will close out the semester on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m. with a non-conference game against the Piranhas from École de technologie supérieure. More commonly known as ETS, the Montreal-based institution is scheduled to officially join the RSEQ in volleyball next season, which would then become a nine-team league. Thus far, ETS has a 2-2 record against the other RSEQ teams, defeating UQTR and UQAC, while losing to Montreal and UQAM.
The Rouge et Or will conclude their fall calendar on Dec. 1 when they host UQAM (7-3).