MONTREAL – Britanie Maranda had 21 points and 13 digs as third-seeded Sherbrooke upset No.2 seed McGill 3-2 to open the RSEQ women’s volleyball semifinals, Friday, at Love Competition Hall. The set scores were 25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 21-25 and 15-11 in a nail-biting contest that took two hours and 14 minutes to play.
The Martlets now face a must-win scenario on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Sherbrooke to force a rubber match in the best-of-three series. Game 3, if necessary, would be played back in Montreal on Sunday at 2 p.m.
This marked the second consecutive home-court setback for McGill, which had won its first 10 games there. Both losses were without the services of all-star power-hitter Victoria Iannotti, who has been recovering from a flu virus since Feb. 16. She is expected to play at some point over the weekend.
The Vert & Or had a stunning 15-4 advantage in services aces, an equally impressive 83-64 margin in digs and a 58-42 edge in kills.
Maranda was one of four Sherbrooke players to reach double digits in scoring, along with Alissa Veilleux (15.5 pts), Jael Esther Telfort (14.5) and Madeleine Ouellette (10.5).
McGill and Sherbrooke had identical 15-6 records during the regular season but the Martlets finished higher in the standings base on a 2-1 record in head-to-head competition. The Vert & Or won the first meeting 3-1 at home on Oct. 15. McGill took the return match at home 3-1 on Nov. 10 and also prevailed in the third confrontation 3-0 in Sherbrooke on Jan. 12.