McGill’s Robitaille named All-Canadian and Iannotti receives Quigley award for leadership at U SPORTS volleyball gala

CALGARY — Charlene Robitaille and Victoria Iannotti, co-captains with the Quebec champion McGill women’s volleyball team, were among the laureated handed out at the annual All-Canadian gala on the eve of the national championship tournament.

Robitaille, a  fifth-year senior from St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., has earned first-team All-Canadian honours, while Iannotti, from St. Laurent, Que., becomes the fourth McGill player to receive the Therese Quiqley Award for community service as a result of her outstanding leadership both on and off the court. Other McGillians to merit the Quigley Award were Rowan Fletcher (2020), Myriam Robitaille (2017) and Anne Mullin (1999).

Robitaille, a six-foot-middle blocker, earned MVP honours in the RSEQ conference. She started in all 12 games and played in all 46 sets . She ranked second among league leaders in hitting percentage (.335) with 116 kills on 272 attempts. The 23-year-old nutritional science senior ranked fourth in scoring (3.4 points per set), ninth in kills (2.52 per set), fifth in service aces (0.41 per set) and eighth in stuff blocks (0.63 per set). She was second on the team in digs with 93, averaging 2.02 per set.

Iannotti, a 5-foot-9 power-hitter becomes the 10th member of the Martlets in 17 seasons to win the conference’s leadership award since it was initiated in 1999. The 22-year-old junior led the league in scoring with an average of 3.77 points per set. A co-captain, she also led in kills per set (3.17) and ranked ninth in hitting percentage (.223) with 146 kills on 384 attempts. Iannotti has been named twice as the McGill athlete of the week and once as the RSEQ weekly recipient. A dedicated athlete, she complemented her volleyball training by joining a competitive rowing team in nearby Boucherville, Que.

A software engineering major with a minor in management, Iannotti earned Academic All-Canadian status and made the Principal’s Student-athlete Honour Roll. She was a recent recipient of a Quebec government bursary for excellence in computer science, engineering and communications. Her responsibilities as co-captain include outreach to potential recruits, team crowdfunding campaigns and various community events, including  the 2021 edition of “Cactus for the Cure”, a fundraiser for the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. She has also handled other administrative tasks for the team, such as coordinating gear, communications, game day logistics and social media presence.

She sits on the McGill Varsity Council and serves as vice-president of student-athlete Initiatives. Iannotti serves on the executive of the McGill STAR Initiative (Student Tutor Athlete Role-models) whose mission is to foster an active healthy lifestyle among youth in Montreal. Victoria is also passionate about her field of software engineering. She is a peer tutor with the Computer Science Undergraduate Society helpdesk. She also volunteers with STEM, which advocates for diversity in related fields, and a McGill group known as POWE, which promotes opportunities for women in engineering. Finally, she volunteers with Kids Code Jeunesse (KCJ), a Canadian charity whose mission is to give every Canadian child access to digital skills education, with a focus on girls and underserved communities.

2022 MAJOR AWARDS, ALL-CANADIAN & ALL-ROOKIE TEAMS

MARY LYONS AWARD (Player of the Year): Kory White, Alberta
MARK TENNANT AWARD (Rookie of the Year): Julia Murmann, Toronto
THÉRÈSE QUIGLEY AWARD (Student-Athlete Community Service): Victoria Iannotti, McGill
MARILYN POMFRET AWARD (Fox 40 Coach of the Year): Steve Delaney, Brock

McGILL VOLLEYBALL ALL-CANADIANS
1997 Wendy Whelan (1st team)
2001 Shauna Forster (2nd team)
2002 Shauna Forster (1st team)
2006 Jennifer Thomson (2nd team)
2007 Jennifer Thomson (1st team)
2008 Jennifer Thomson (1st team)
2009 Jennifer Thomson (2nd team)
2010 Jennifer Thomson (2nd team)
2011 Kelsey Irwin (2nd team)
2012 Kaiva Mateus (1st team)
2014 Maude-Andre Morin (2nd team)
2016 Myriam Robitaille (2nd team)
2016 Yasmeen Dawoodjee (2nd team)
2018 Myriam Robitaille (1st team)
2019 Claire Vercheval (1st team)
2022 Charlene Robitaille (1st team)