MONTREAL -- Myriam Robitaille of Terrebonne, Que., tallied a game-high 21 points but it was all in vain as No.10 Laval rallied to defeat ninth-ranked McGill 3-1, Friday, to open the RSEQ best-of-three women's volleyball semifinals at Love Competition Hall. After dropping the opening set 19-25, the Rouge et Or roared back to win 25-20, 25-21 and 25-22.

McGill now faces a must-win scenario in Quebec City at 7 p.m. on Saturday (March 3) in Game 2. The Rouge et Or, as hosts of the 2018 U SPORTS Final Eight national championship, are guaranteed a berth in the tournament.

The Martlets took the regular season series between the teams 3-1, but the Rouge et Or had won the most recent encounter 3-2.

"I knew Laval would be able to stay in the game despite losing the first set," said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau. "There was a lot of experience on the court for them. These girls (on the Rouge et Or) have won a lot of championships in CÉGEP so they know how to be patient."

The Martlets had a 56-48 advantage in kills, a 55-40 margin in digs and a 5-3 edge in blocks. Laval held a 12-4 difference in service aces.

"We played a pretty good game offensively, as did they," added Beliveau of the back-and-forth affair that took an hour and 52 minutes to play. "Sometimes we were leading and then they would come back, sometimes they were leading and we would come back to tie it. And then at the end, we made a couple of mistakes that were costly. If we'd just done what we had to do and what we'd been doing until then, we'd have gone into a fifth set and that can always go either way."

Robitaille, a six-foot middle blocker, earned her points with 19 kills and two stuff blocks. The French language and literature senior also had four digs and a pair of assists.

Sophomores Elisabeth Perrault of Montreal and Claire Vercheval of Ste. Julie, Que., also reached double-figures for the Martlets, with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Laval was led by Jade Fortin, who scored 13 points and had nine digs, and Maud Chapleau, who registered 14 digs along with 11 points. Fortin recorded a dozen kills and a stuff block, while Chapleau had 10 kills and an ace. Teammate Alice Cloutier earned 12 points and Myriam Adam scored 10.

"I think our game plan was pretty good -- when we were able to apply it, it worked really well," Beliveau offered. "The only difference is that Laval is serve receiving really well and we have to be able to unbalance that a little more. They're passing a lot of good balls and when we did beat Laval during the season, we were serving tougher and we were able to break their serve reception a little bit."