MONTREAL – Victoria Iannotti and Clara Poire each scored 20.5 points as second-place McGill won a thrilling RSEQ semifinal opener 3-2 over the third-seeded Montreal Carabins in women’s volleyball at Love Competition Hall, Friday.
McGill is now in position to sweep the best-of-three series with a victory in Game 2 at the CEPSUM gym on Saturday (Feb. 25) at 5 p.m. If a rubber match is needed, it will be back at the Sir Arthur Currie gym on Sunday at 2 p.m.
After taking a stranglehold 2-0 lead over the first two sets, 25-21 and 25-19, the Martlets watched in horror as U de M roared back to win the next two sets 25-23 and 25-20. In the final set, McGill seemed to be in cruise control with a 9-1 lead. But the Carabins rallied with 10 consecutive points to take an 11-9 advantage and it appeared to be just a matter of time for them to get to 15 first. McGill, however, had other ideas and hung on for a spectacular 16-14 victory in a back-and-forth contest that took two hours and nine minutes to play.
“The first two sets we were in control, but the Carabins modified their lineup and we had to adjust,” said a very relieved McGill head coach Rachèle Béliveau, who is now two wins away for her 700th career victory. “It was a bit tougher to adjust as we had good and bad moments. We started the fifth set well but got into a bad (rut). Fortunately we were able to get out of it. There was a lot of intensity on the court and both sides hit very hard, played good defence and made a lot of good blocks at the net. In a tough game like this, there are some moments where if you lose a little bit of focus and intensity, then that can easily change the outcome.”
Although both teams finished the regular season with identical 12-6 records, the Martlets seem to have the Carabins number, extending their win streak over the cross-town rivals to 10 consecutive confrontations (including five this season), dating back to a 3-2 loss on Nov. 29, 2019. But anyone who watched the playoff opener knows that the win streak is meaningless in this series, even though it is still nice to have that ace up their sleeve.
Iannotti, a software engineering senior from St. Laurent, Que., scored her points on the strength of a game-high 17 kills, along with three aces and an assisted block. She added three digs and one assist on defence.
Poiré, a kinesiology senior from Blainville, Que., tallied 16 kills, three aces and three assisted blocks. In addition, she collected seven digs and one assist.
Two other teammates also reached double digits in scoring, namely freshman Rachel Leduc (16 pts) of Montreal and Charlene Robitaille (10 pts), a senior from St. Jean, Que.
High scorers for the Carabins were Myriam Kayser-Tourigny (19 pts) and Gabrielle-Fortin (18).
McGill had the upper hand in service aces (13-7) and stuff blocks (9-7), but Montreal had the edge in kills (57-56), digs (56-50) and assists (54-52). With only 20 errors on missed kills, compared to Montreal’s 25 errors, the Martlets had a solid 26.5 per cent hitting efficiency, compared to the visitors who were at 23 per cent.
The setters for both sides were kept busy, with Montreal’s Sarah McGlashan registering 45 assists, while McGill’s Charlotte Chouinard-Laliberte – filling in again for injured veteran Audrey Trottier— out-doing that with 46 of her own.
Catherine Vercheval, the McGill libero from Ste. Julie. Que,, was busy handling a whopping 42 balls hit her way. She was credited with a game-high 14 digs and a pair of assists.
There’s a lot riding on this semifinal series as whoever wins will not only get a chance to play for the Quebec title, but also earns an automatic berth at the U SPORTS Final Eight championship in Vancouver, B.C. The RSEQ conference has two berths at Nationals this year.