MONTREAL -- Marie-Alex Belanger collected a game-high 14.5 points as her fifth-ranked Montreal Carabins cruised to a 3-0 sweep over No. 10 McGill in RSEQ women's volleyball action at the Centre CEPSUM, Friday. The set scores were 25-20, 25-20, 25-16.

The result clinched first-place for Montreal (16-3) in the five-team RSEQ conference

Erika Cournoyer, a third-year middle blocker from Longueuil, Que., led the Martlets in scoring with 14 points, derived from 13 kills and one service ace. She also had three digs.

"She played well today, brings a good attitude, works hard and is very efficient at the net," said Rachele Beliveau, in her 25th season as head coach at McGill. "We tried her in position No.2, on the right side of the court, and her hitting was very good.

Teammates Emilie Matte de Grasse and Marjolaine Ste-Marie led the Martlets in digs with 11 and 10, respectively. Yasmeen Dawoodjee, the fifth-year setter from Ottawa, posted a game-high 32 assists, along with a kill and one ace.

"Tonight we tried some different looks. It was the best time to do make changes as we look ahead to playing Sherbrooke in a must-win game on Saturday," noted Beliveau. "Our focus was to hang in with the Carabins as long as we could but we made plenty of substitutions and used 13 players tonight because we need to be rested and ready to go at full-strength against Sherbrooke."

With four games remaining before playoffs,the second-place Martlets (12-6) are intensely focussed on finishing ahead of Sherbrooke (12-6) who play at McGill's Love Competition Hall in a critical contest on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The winner of that grudge match will hold the tie-breaker, which would give them home-court advantage in the upcoming playoffs.

"We have some minor injuries but they are not major we can deal with them,

 

Pos	CLASSEMENTS RSEQ STANDINGS	MJ/GP	V/W	D/L	SG/SW	SP/SL	PP/PF	PC/PA	MOY/WIN%	Diff./GBL	PTS
1X	Montréal	19	16	3	51	16	1594	1295	0.842	0.0	32
2	McGill	18	12	6	43	25	1564	1391	0.667	3.5	24
3	Sherbrooke	18	12	6	40	28	1521	1452	0.667	3.5	24
4	Laval	17	7	10	31	36	1460	1478	0.412	8.0	14
5	UQAM	18	5	13	22	46	1391	1542	0.278	10.5	10

SOURCE:
 
Earl Zukerman
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Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
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