Sherbrooke soundly shut down by volleyball Martlets

Box Score
MONTREAL -- Marie-Pier Durivage, a senior middle-blocker from St. Nicolas, Que., posted a game-high 16 kills for the McGill women's volleyball team, helping them power through a stubborn Sherbrooke defence en route to a key and decisive 3-1 win on Sunday afternoon. The Martlets won by set scores of 25-19, 25-16, 22-25 and 25-16.

It was McGill's second victory in the past week against Sherbrooke, who have also dropped two straight visits to Love Competition Hall dating back to last season.

The Martlets needed many second and third efforts during rallies against the Vert & Or, who finished with an 18-7 advantage in stuff blocks, including a game-high 10 from right-side Anne-Julie D'Auteuil and five others with at least four blocks or more.

McGill, however, produced a whopping 99 digs. Fifth-year setter Marie-Christine Lapointe led the way with 21 digs, while Marjolaine Ste-Marie (19), Catherine Amyot (15), Ashley Norfleet (13) and Yasmeen Dawoodjee (11) all finished in double-digits.

Keeping the ball alive allowed McGill's offence to execute their readjusted game-plan -- in the wake of back-to-back 3-0 losses to Montreal and Laval -- and relentlessly apply pressure. According to head coach Rachele Beliveau, the team's wide variety of hitting options at the net made the difference.

"It's good for us because we had a solid game against Montreal and still lost, followed by an OK game against Laval, in which there were a few things we needed to adjust, which we did today," Beliveau explained. "We passed better and we served better, so that put us in a position where we could be more offensive-minded today. To that end, we're a team that has many hitting options, so we just need to bring the ball to the net and create those options. If we do that, we can be hard to beat."

Dawoodjee, a senior nutritional science student from Ottawa, played a superb passing game, collecting a game-high 42 assists and three of the Martlets' 10 service aces. Durivage, meanwhile, led her team's defensive effort with four of of the team's 14 blocks.

Sherbrooke (4-3) will return to Montreal next Friday night to face the UdeM Carabins (6-2), while McGill (6-2) heads up to Laval to take on the Rouge et Or (6-1). Both games go at 6 p.m.

Short Box Score
(Nov 9, 2014 at Love Competition Hall)

McGill 3, Sherbrooke 1 
(25-19, 25-16, 22-25, 25-16)

SHERB (4-3) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Cather. Deslauriers 8-0-4;
Camille Charest-G. 7-0-4; Kariane Dubois 7-0-4; Kim Robitaille 5-0-4;
Veronique David 4-1-7; Roxane Hasseni 3-0-0; Anne-Julie D'Auteuil
3-0-10; Alexandra Erhart 0-2-1; Barbara Mantha 0-0-1; Totals
37-3-18.5. (Assists) - Kim Robitaille 30. (Dig leaders) - Camille
Charest-G. 14; Joanie Whittom 14; Cather. Deslauriers 10; Kim
Robitaille 9

MCGILL (6-2) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Marie-Pier Durivage 16-0-4;
Catherine Amyot 13-2-1; Ashley Norfleet 9-0-2; Marie-C. Lapointe
4-2-1; Marie-Eve Dorion 2-1-0; Erika Cournoyer 2-2-2; Emilie
MattedeGrasse 2-0-0; Virginie Hebert 2-0-0; Yasmeen Dawoodjee 1-3-3;
Charlotte Clarke 0-0-1; Totals 51-10-7.0. (Assists) - Yasmeen
Dawoodjee 42. (Dig leaders) - Marie-C. Lapointe 21; Marjolaire
Ste-Marie 19; Catherine Amyot 15; Ashley Norfleet 13; Yasmeen
Dawoodjee 11; Marie-Pier Durivage 9

Site: Love Competition Hall

Date: Nov 09, 2014   Attendance: 60   Time: 1:35

Referees: Ariane Gauthier, Abdel Kadary