HALIFAX, N.S. -- Catherine Amyot registered a game-high 16.5 points as No.7-ranked McGill rallied for an inspirational 3-1 come-from-behind road victory over Dalhousie at the AUS-RSEQ interlocking women's volleyball tournament at the Dalplex on Friday afternoon.

McGill, which came off a 3-0 sweep over Saint Mary's earlier in the day, downed the Tigers 25-11, 25-20, 21-25, 28-26 in a contest that took an hour and 47 minutes to play.

The Martlets, however, suffered some collateral damage in the victory. Leading 2-0, McGill stumbled in the third set when power-hitter Emilie Matte de Grasse went down awkwardly and had to be helped off the court. She appeared to suffer a sprained ankle and is unliklely to be back in the lineup before January. The loss of Matte de Grasse allowed the Tigers to have more control over the net and they jumped out to an 18-12 lead and held on for a 25-21 set victory.

With all the momentum on the Tigers side they opened up a 17-10, only to see the Martlets roar back. Dalhousie had four set points but could not close out the match. McGill tied it at 26-26 and finally managed to get their first lead of the set at 27-26 after a Tigers error, then capped the huge comeback with a 28-26 decision to take the game 3-1.

"We were trailing that whole set, then we're pretty stressed over the injury," said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau. "It was tough to lose a key player like Emilie, but we calmed everyone down, made some adjustments and came through. We rotated in two rookies -- Ariane Lavoie-Boutin and Mila Krunic -- and they both performed well in a stressful situation. We were very strong, patient and won our points one by one. This group is much tougher mentally than any team that I've had before."

Amyot had a game high 15 kills to go along with an ace, a dozen digs and an assisted stuff block. Two other Martlets reached double figures, with Marie-Eve Dorion tallying 12.5 points (11 kills, 1.5 blocks), while Myriam Robitaille had 11.5, collecting nine kills, an ace and 1.5 blocks.

Yasmeen Dawoodjee, McGill's fifth-year setter from Ottawa, racked up a whopping 44 assists and is now ranked third in the nation in that department, averaging 10.2 assists per set.

For Dalhousie, Mieke DuMont and Anna Dunn-Suen both recorded 12 kills and Marisa Mota had a game-high 26 digs.

The Martlets, now 21-4 overall and 9-2 in league play, will play Acadia Saturday morning at 11 a.m. before heading back to Montreal.

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
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