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 visitors took the first two sets 25-17 and 25-22 but McGill rallied to take the next two , 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 stayed away from last week’s game but was on the bench for the playoff opener and her status is uncertain for the rest of the weekend. Iannotti, one of 10 players expected to graduate, was honoured in a post-game ceremony after being too ill to attend the Seniors Day ceremonies in the previous home game against the Carabins.
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. Both teams posted a feeble 12 per cent hitting efficiency, with Sherbrooke being credited with 37 hitting errors, while McGill had 22.
“We appeared nervous to start and weren’t really there in the first set,” said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau. “We followed our game plan but didn’t execute. We were able to readjust in the third and fourth set and it looked like we had the momentum in the final set but we let it slip away. There were some moments where we played really good defence and blocked very well but we didn’t win the crucial time points. We have to turn the page now and get ready for Game 2.”
Clara Poiré of Blainville, Que., and Charlene Robitaille of St. Jean, Que., paced the Martlets with 14.5 points apiece. Poiré had a team-leading dozen kills with five assisted blocks and six digs. Robitaille had nine kills with one ace, 4.5 blocks and nine digs.
Seniors Brook Brown of Largo, Fla., and Meaghan Smith of Vancouver, B.C., added 9.5 and six points, respectively.
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-Lupien (10.5).
McGill and Sherbrooke had identical 15-6 records during the regular season but the Martlets finished higher in the standings based 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. This marks the eighth time in history that these rivals have crossed paths in post-season play and Sherbrooke has won our of the previous seven series.
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