MONTREAL --
Maud Chapleau scored a game-high 21 points and teammate
Jenny Barbeau added 11 as the No. 8-ranked Laval Rouge et Or waltzed into the big city and rallied for a huge 3-1 victory over McGill in women's volleyball at Love Competition Hall, Friday. McGill won the opening set 25-20 but Laval roared back to win 25-23, 25-16 and 25-16.
The result halted McGill's win streak at three (after sweeping a holiday tourney in Toronto) and allowed Laval to maintain a share of first place with the Montreal Carabins. Both teams are 9-3 in the six-team RSEQ conference, while the fifth-place Martlets tumbled to 4-8.
"We were ahead in the second set and battled hard but near the end of the set, the game started to slowly tip towards Laval," said head coach
Rachele Beliveau. "We were without (injured)
Claire Vercheval again today and after we lost
Elisabeth Perreault in the third set, we started to substitute some of our players but we lost the momentum.and it slowly drifted in Laval's favour."
McGill had three players in double-digit scoring, led by fifth-year senior
Myriam Robitaille, who had 18 points, on the strength of 11 kills, three service aces and four blocks. She was joined atop the leader-board by freshman
Victoria Iannotti (12.5 points) and senior
Elisabeth Perrault, who tallied 11.5 points before leaving in the third set with an undisclosed injury.
Laval had the edge in kills (47-40), aces (11-8) and assists (46-39), while McGill had the upper-hand in stuff blocks (13-5) and digs (58-55).
McGill now sits six points behind the last playoff berth -- currently held by UQAM (7-5) and Sherbrooke (7-5) -- with eight games remaining on the schedule. Sherbrooke holds the tie-breaker over McGill, while the Martlets have split their two confrontations with UQAM and have two meetings left with them.
The Martlets, who now have their proverbial backs against the wall, will now host UQAM in a must-win affair on Sunday (Jan. 12) at 1 p.m. Laval is off until Jan. 19, when they play the Carabins.
BOXSCORE
RSEQ STANDINGS & STATS
