Fourth-ranked volleyball Martlets win 2 of 3 at Alberta tourney, bite Pandas for first time

EDMONTON – The McGill women’s volleyball team posted some solid results over the holiday break winning two of three games at the Alberta New Year’s Classic, played at the Saville Community Sports Centre. The fourth-ranked Martlets opened with a 3-1 loss to No. 8 Calgary on Dec. 29, followed by a 3-2 victory over No. 5 Alberta on Dec. 30 and a 3-0 sweep over Regina on New Year’s eve.
 
McGill, which also was able to scrimmage against three other squads at the six-team tourney, improved its overall record to 15-6.
 
“It was like a very good training camp for us, which is just what we needed as we hadn’t played since Dec. 2,” said Rachèle Béliveau, who has racked up a 691-550-2 overall record in her 32 years as head coach at McGill.
 
“We had a chance to play everybody over the weekend. If they didn’t see much playing time in the official games, they did see significant on-court time in the scrimmages that we had against the other teams.”
 
Clara Poiré, a 23-year-old kinesiology senior from Blainville, Que., was McGill’s most consistent player over the tournament, combining good offence with solid defence. Over her nine sets played, the 6-foot-2 right-side hitter collected 21 kills, 18 digs and two assisted blocks. She registered a 2.0 passing ratio (out of 3), a 32 per cent kill rate and a 23 per cent kill efficiency.
 
In the tourney-opening loss to Calgary, the Dinos won by set scores of 25-19, 25-16, 21-25 and 26-24.
 
Power-hitter Victoria Iannotti paced the offence with 15 kills, one service ace, four digs and a 2.33 passing ratio. Middle blocker Charlene Robitaille had 10 kills and eight digs. Rachel Leduc added nine kills and an ace over two sets played. Meaghan Smith contributed five kills and two stuff blocks
 
“We wanted to play well against the best teams, and I was very happy with the level of competition we faced,”  Beliveau said. “Our goal was to get going after almost a month off with a good game against Calgary, to play flawlessly and not to be (in awe) of how well they play.”
 
In a historic win over Alberta, on their own home court, McGill prevailed by set scores of 25-18, 13-25, 21-25, 28-26 and 15-10.
 
“We wanted to play a consistent game with Alberta, and we did that, along with beating them for the first time ever,” noted Beliveau.
 
The Martlets tallied 14 blocks and racked up a whopping 95 digs overall, led by Catherine Vercheval (17), Robitaille (16), Audrey Trottier (15) and Iannotti (10). Poiré had 14 kills, 12 digs, two assisted blocks, and a 2.43 passing ratio.

Against Regina, the Martlets swept the Cougars 25-12, 25-16 and 25-17.
 
In that confrontation, Robitaille paced the offence with 10 kills, 2.20 passing, three aces and 11 digs. Setter Charlotte Chouinard-Laliberté, a sophomore from Montreal, registered 31 assists, to go along with an ace, one kill and six digs.
 
“That matchup gave us an opportunity to get some of our reserves into the game,” Beliveau noted. “So, we did reach our objective over the weekend and hopefully that will get us ready to play at a high level for the second semester.”
 
The Martlets now turn their focus on the nine remaining league games before playoffs. McGill, which sits third in the RSEQ conference with a 6-3 record, resumes regular season play with a pair of road games, against the No. 5 ranked Montreal Carabins (8-1) on Jan. 6 and fourth-place Laval (4-6) on Jan. 13, before returning home against Ottawa (3-7) on Jan. 20.

ALBERTA NEW YEAR’S CLASSIC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT RESULTS
 

RSEQ STANDINGS & STATS

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)