MONTREAL – Clara Poire of Blainville, Que., scored a game-high 12 points as the McGill women’s volleyball team swept visiting Ottawa 3-0 in RSEQ play at Love Competition Hall, Friday. The set scores were 25-18, 25-18 and 25-21.
The result avenged a shocking 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Dec. 2 as the Martlets improved to 4-1 in their season series with Ottawa, including a 2-1 mark in conference play.
McGill was dressed in pink uniforms, marking the team’s annual ‘Dig for the Cure’ game, a fundraiser in support of breast cancer research.
Poiré, a 6-foot-2, right-side hitter, scored her points on the strength of 11 kills and one service ace. The 23-year-old kinesiology senior also contributed a half-dozen digs on defence. She is currently ranked fourth among RSEQ leaders in hitting percentage with .302 success rate, registering 41 kills on 106 attempts.
“Our offensive game plan was to work with the right side and Clara played really well. She delivered what we wanted her to do,” said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau, who took advantage of her deep lineup to get 11 players into the game. “Ottawa has been playing well of late and we prepared hard on our defensive positioning to limit their offence.”
Catherine Vercheval, a senior libero from Ste. Julie, Que., was very strong on defence and led both teams with 10 digs. Setter Audrey Trottierof Longueuil, Que., registered 23 assists, to go along with four digs, one kill, an ace and a pair of assisted blocks.
Topping the scoring charts for the Gee-Gees with seven points apiece was Denae Bristow and Janae McKay.
There wasn’t much to chose between the teams. McGill led in kills (33-29) and aces (6-4), while Ottawa had a slight edge in digs (41-39). Both teams recorded six stuff blocks. The most telling stat was the killing efficiency, with McGill connecting on 24 per cent, while Ottawa was good on only 7.4 per cent.
McGill improved to 8-4 in league play and moved into a tie with second-place UQAM (8-4), two points behind division-leading Montreal (9-3), with six games remaining before playoffs. The sixth-place Gee-Gees dropped to 4-9 and sit four points in arrears of the last playoff spot, held by Laval (6-6) and Sherbrooke (6-7). Ottawa will host UQAM on Sunday (Jan. 22).
The Martlets will have one day to prepare before make a short hop across Mt. Royal to confront Montreal in a battle for first place on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both teams were in the Top 10 national rankings last week but have been knocked out after suffering setbacks last weekend. McGill has taken two of three regular season confrontations with the Carabins and one more in preseason play.
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