Ninth-ranked Carabins clinch pennant with surprising sweep over No. 10 volleyball Martlets on Seniors Appreciation Day

MONTREAL – Olympe Desmedt scored 17.5 points and led the No.9 ranked Montreal Carabins to a shocking 3-0 sweep over No. 10 McGill to clinch the RSEQ women’s volleyball regular season pennant on the last day of the season, Sunday. The set scores were 25-16, 25-15 and 25-19 in a first-place showdown that lasted only 75 minutes before a lively crowd of about 300 at Love Competition Hall.
 
It put a damper on Seniors Appreciation Day for the Martlets, who dropped to 10-1 overall at home. McGill was without the services of co-captain Victoria Iannotti, an all-star power-hitter who came down with a bad cold on Friday and hasn’t been able to accompany the team for the past three days.

This was the rubber match between these archrivals and the win concluded Montreal’s season at 17-4, while McGill finished second at 15-6. Had the Martlets won and forced a log-jam atop the standings, they would have finished on top with the rubber match tiebreaker.
 
“They were sharp today and our first contact balls were not good,” said McGill head coach Rachèle Béliveau. “We gave them a lot of balls that they were able to return right away, so that didn’t help and we couldn’t construct anything offensively. There was no flow, no momentum in our game. We tried to serve a little tougher but it was not enough to put them off balance. It was a game to forget.”

The tale of the tape was in the hitting percentage, where Montreal registered a stellar .327 success rate with 44 kills and only 12 errors on 98 attempts. McGill posted a season low .061 hitting percentage with 24 kills and 18 errors on 98 chances. Those figures were especially surprising since the Martlets were ranked sixth in the nation with a hitting percentage of .233, while the Carabins were ranked 11th at .231.
 
The Carabins also had the upper hand in service aces (7-2), digs (47-35) and stuff blocks (7-6).
 
Clara Poiré was McGill’s leading scorer with 7.5 points. She was one of 10 seniors expected to graduate, a group that includes co-captains Charlène Robitaille and Victoria Iannotti. Others include Audrey Trottier, Melanie Dormann, Meaghan Smith, Brook Brown, Olivia Krishnan, Rio Pesochin and Masha Solaja.
 
McGill will now focus on preparations for its RSEQ best-of-three semifinal series against Sherbrooke, which posted an identical 15-6 record but ended up third in the eight-team Quebec conference. The Martlets finished ahead by winning two of three meetings with the Vert & Or. After dropping a 3-1 road decision on Oct. 15, McGill bounced back with a 3-1 home-court victory on Nov. 10 and a 3-0 sweep in Sherbrooke on Jan. 12.
 
BOXSCORE
 
U SPORTS LEADERBOARD
 
HOW McGILL STATS RANK NATIONALLY

RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS
 
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (cell.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca