MONTREAL -- Marie-Alex Belanger, the RSEQ conference player of the year, scored 18.5 points as No.5 Montreal rallied from a sleepy start to defeat ninth-ranked McGill 3-1 in the opening game of the Quebec women's volleyball finals, at the Centre CEPSUM, Friday. After dropping the first set by a convincing 25-11 score, the Carabins roared back to win 25-22, 25-20 and 25-16.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series will take place on Saturday at Love Competition Hall, at 7 p.m. McGill must win to force a rubber match, slated for Sunday at 1 p.m., back at CEPSUM.

The Carabins claimed all four regular season contests between the archrivals, who also split a pair of pre-season meetings. While the Martlets are aiming to earn their first ever RSEQ banner, U de M has appeared in 11 consecutive finals and won seven.

The Martlets dominated the first set but were unable to maintain the momentum as Montreal swept the next three.

"Sometimes it's just the realization that you could beat them," explained McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau of the breakdown. "Seeing that they were shaky and that we had control of them, suddenly you start thinking more about the result than playing the game.

"We gave them a chance to slowly come back into it," she added. "And they played with a little bit more confidence. Towards the end we lost control of what we do really well, like bringing the ball to the net and maintaining a good offence."

Montreal held a 40-32 lead in kills, a 52-36 margin in digs, and a 12-7 difference in blocks, while McGill had a 9-7 advantage in service aces. The Carabins committed 18 errors compared to McGill's 13.

"We served really, really well in the first set and a half, but then missed a few and just lost confidence in our serving game," said Beliveau. "We started to serve easier, and that gave Montreal the chance to hit harder (on the return)."

Belanger, who hails from Joliette, Que., led the offence for Montreal with 17 kills, an ace and an assisted block. Teammate Stephanie Lojen of Montreal collected 14 digs, and setter Katia Forcier, the 2014 CIS rookie of the year from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., registered a game-high 35 assists.

Marie-Eve Dorion, a physical education junior from St. Hubert, Que., led the Martlets with 11.5 points, on the strength of eight kills, two aces, and three assisted stuff blocks. Team captain Yasmeen Dawoodjee of Ottawa was credited with 26 assists and nine digs, in addition to two kills, a pair of aces and a block. Libero Marjolaine Ste-Marie of St. Lambert, Que., posted a team-high 11 digs.

Both McGill and Montreal have already qualified for the CIS Final Eight national championship in Brandon, Man., March 11-13, but the winner of the RSEQ title will receive preferential seeding for the tournament, in addition to taking home the league banner.