MONTREAL – Victoria Iannotti scored a game-high and career-best 22.5 points, while Charlene Robitaille added 20 as McGill edged Laval 3-2 in a women's volleyball thriller at Love Competition Hall, Sunday.
 
The set scores were 25-17, 24-26, 25-13, 24-26 and 15-12 in a back-and-forth affair that took two hours and three minutes to play. It snapped a four-game losing streak in head-to-head confrontations with Laval since McGill's last win on Oct. 17, 2019.
 
"We served really well today. We passed quite well and we dug a lot of balls," said McGill head coach Rachele Beliveau, whose squad had a huge 80-66 advantage in digs, and in hitting percentage, connecting on 26.6 per cent of 157 kill attempts. Laval only succeeded on 12.9 per cent of 186 attempts.

"We've been working a lot on defence over the last three weeks and I'm very happy to see that it paid off... It was a true team effort today."

The rivals combined to produce eight players reaching double digits in points, believed to be the most ever recorded during a McGill league game.

Iannotti, a 5-foot-9 power-hitter from St. Laurent, Que., tallied her points on the strength of 19 kills (on 22 kill attempts), a pair of service aces and 1.5 stuff blocks. The software engineering junior also had 16 digs and one assist on defence.

Robitaille, a six-foot middle blocker from St. Jean, Que., had 15 kills (on 17 balls), four aces and one block, in addition to seven digs and four assists.

Teammate Clara Poire, a junior from Blainville, Que., contributed 12.5 points and Catherine Vercheval, a senior libero from Ste. Julie, Que., was credited with 16 digs. Setter Audrey Trottier also had a stellar performance on defence. The kinesiology sophomore from Longueuil, Que., collected 41 assists and a game-high 21 digs.

Montrealer Beatrice Lamarche paced the Rouge et Or with 19 points, followed by Justine Raymond (13), Marianne St-Aubin (11.5), Eloise Ross-Tremblay (11) and Alexandryne Leroy-Audy (10.5).

The Martlets and Rouge et Or were evenly matched in other areas. McGill maintained a slim edge in kills (57-56) and aces (10-6), while Laval led in blocks (7-6) and assists (56-54).

The victory moved McGill (7-3) two points ahead of Laval (6-4) and into a temporary tie with UQAM (7-2) for second in the seven-team RSEQ conference standings. The Citadins will play sixth-place Ottawa (1-8) next weekend in the league's only remaining game before the December exam and holiday period.

McGill, which currently has no games scheduled over the five-week break, is scheduled to resume league play on Jan. 7, when they host division-leading Sherbrooke (8-2) in a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.
 
BOXSCORE
 
RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS
 

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca