MONTREAL -- Charlene Robitaille of St. Jean, Que., scored a team-leading 19 points as the McGill women's volleyball team rallied from an early deficit to edge their long-time nemesis, the Montreal Carabins, 3-2 at Love Competition Hall, Sunday.

After dropping a close opening set, the Martlets played shake, rattle and roll, en route to winning the matchup 23-25, 25-18, 25-16, 20-25 and 15-11. It was a relatively quick rendezvous, despite the five sets, as the contest took only 62 minutes to play.

The win was McGill's fifth straight against U de M, a program once considered an almost unbeatable opponent for the Martlets of yesteryear.

"Being able to bounce back and play strong at home after a tough loss to Sherbrooke here last week was a good sign (of mental toughness)," said Rachele Beliveau, in her 31st season as head coach of the Martlets.

Robitaille, a six-foot middle blocker, scored her points largely on the strength of 13 kills, to go along with an ace and four total blocks. A 23-year-old nutritional science senior, she also contributed six digs on defence and passed for a solid 2.51 ratio (out of 3) on service receive.

"She's a very consistent, all-round good player," Belivieau said. "It's very rare that you see a middle blocker who is that good on serve receive because they are more focussed on doing a lot of jumping, which is demanding. In practice over the past few years, she looked good on serve receive, so we worked with her on that during the year-long (coronavirus) pandemic. She didn't have that much experience in the back court but has adapted well and plays most of the time without substitutions, which permits her to be more focussed in the game."

Two other Martlets reached double digits in scoring. Clara Poire, a 6-foot-2 junior from Blainville, Que., and Brook Brown, a six-foot sophomore from Clearwater, Fla., both shone brightly despite being in their first year at this level.  Poire tallied a dozen kills, three aces and four assisted blocks, in addition to five digs. Brown registered a team-high 15 kills, two assisted blocks and four digs.

"It was good to have some variation on offence," Beliveau noted. "Hitting was a very strong component of our game today. We have a lot of depth on this team and once we get to see how they stand up (to the pressure), we will be able to utilize them in a better way."

Other key category leaders for McGill included libero Catherine Vercheval (11 digs) and setter Andreanne Tremblay (37 assists).

Olympe Desmedt, a native of France, paced the Carabins with a game-high 22 points, including 20 kills, in a losing cause.

As the set scores indicated, there wasn't much to choose from between the two sides. McGill had a slight edge in total points scored (71-70), kills (53-52) and stuff blocks (11-8). The Carabins led in aces (10-7), digs (48-41) and assists (53-48). The key difference was in hitting percentage, where McGill was successful on 27.8 per cent of its kills, compared to U de M, which was only hitting at a 17.3 per cent clip.

McGill improved to 3-2 in the RSEQ standings and will host both UQAM (2-1) and UQTR (1-3) next weekend, on Nov. 5 and Nov. 7, respectively. The Carabins (2-3) have a bye week to regroup before resuming play against visiting Ottawa (0-3) on Nov. 12.

BOXSCORE

RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Off.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca