Women's Volleyball | 10/1/2017 11:59:00 PM

OTTAWA -- The McGill Martlets defeated Sherbrooke 3-1 for fifth place at the 10-team Gee-Gees Preseason Classic women's volleyball tournament on Sunday. Set scores were 25-22, 25-19, 20-25 and 25-21. The tourney had a strong field, featuring five teams that qualified for the 2017 U SPORTS national championship and two others that spent time in the Top 10 rankings last season.

McGill finished with a 3-2 record, extending their record-breaking win streak to six games from the start of the season before being beaten by their archrival Montreal Carabins. The Martlets win opened on Friday by sweeping Guelph 25-17, 25-17 in the best-of-three round-robin before falling 2-1 to Montreal (25-18, 24-26, 25-22). On Day 2, McGill edged Memorial 18-25, 25-16 and 25-18 but then lost 2-1 to Western (19-25, 25-22, 25-29) that evening.

"It was a little tougher (than last week's five-game sweep at the UQAM tourney)," admitted Beliveau. "But even when we were not playing as well, we were still in each game with a chance to win. If we could've just been more consistent… That's one of the goals we have to work on: trying to be more consistent from match to match and learning to be consistent within the match as well.

"We were able to come back sometimes to win games when we were behind and were able to close out games. Offensively if we play our best we're going to be very good. We just need to work on consistency."

Team captain Myriam Robitaille of Terrebonne, Que., who spent part of the summer with the Canadian national development team, made her season debut after missing last week's competition. The six-foot middle blocker registered 53 points through her 14 sets played on the strength of 37 kills, 13 aces, one stuff block, four assisted blocks and 24 digs. She maintained a 47 per cent kill rate and 30 per cent kill efficiency.

Power-hitter Claire Vercheval of Ste. Julie, Que., also had a strong weekend, with 42 points. The 6-foot-1 physical education sophomore had 38 kills, a pair of aces and four assisted blocks, along with 36 digs. She recorded a 35 per cent kill percentage and 19 per cent kill efficiency.

Beliveau rotated two setters through the weekend. Sophomore Catherine Duchaine of Montreal registered 82 assists while senior Thara Dawoodjee of Ottawa was credited with 43. Marjolaine Ste-Marie of St. Lambert, Que., and Lea-Marie Duguay of Lorraine, Que., -- the team's two liberos -- also looked in fine form.

"Preparation for the season has been going quite well overall," assessed Beliveau. "We've tried a lot of people and we're still able to come with some good results, so once we start stabilizing our lineup a bit more I expect more consistency. At the same time, it's good that we can play a lot of people and prepare them for our challenging schedule."

McGill, which now owns an 8-2 record in preseason play, will meet Moncton, Montreal and St. Mary's in the annual Martlet Invitational tournament over Homecoming Week, from Oct. 13-15 at Love Competition Hall.