SHERBROOKE – Elyssa Lajmi scored 15.5 points and Rachel Leducadded 15 as McGill handed division-leading Sherbrooke, ranked fourth in the nation, it’s first loss of the season with a stunning 3-1 road victory at the Centre Sportif, Friday.
The set scores were 25-22, 20-25, 25-15 and 25-21 in a match that took one hour and 55 minutes before a full house of about 400 fans.
It was a huge victory for McGill head coach Rachèle Béliveau and her Martlets, who improved to 5-7, while shell-shocked Sherbrooke dropped to 11-1.
“The girls played really well (in all aspects), right from the start and were very consistent. There was no let down,” said a very pleased Béliveau. “We made a few mistakes but always seemed to bounce back fairly quickly. We were very focused and in control. Our serve-receive was (solid) and we dug the ball well. We learned how to win with good team play, it was a good step up. I was really impressed with the way we handled the game, stayed calm and played every ball as hard as we could. We had no quit in our game.”
A previous inductee to the Sports Hall of Fame at the Université de Sherbrooke where she was an All-Canadian volleyball player, Béliveau was honoured with a bouquet of flowers in a pre-game ceremony, presented by Simon Croteau, general manager of the Centre Sportif and Jean-Benoit Jubinville, a former McGill football player who serves as Sherbrooke’s director of the sports excellence program.
This was the final regular season game at the venue of her alma mater for Béliveau, who announced last week that she would be retiring after 34 years behind the bench at McGill. During the post-game celebration, the Martlets rushed onto the court to celebrate and then quickly surrounded their coach to congratulate her.
In what was easily McGill’s all-round best performance of the season, the Martlets narrowly missed achieving a rare “triple 50”, collecting 51 kills, 58 digs and 48 assists. They also had six service aces and a half-dozen stuff blocks.
Lamji, an imposing six-foot import from France, scored her points on the strength of 13 kills, one service ace and 1.5 stuff blocks, to go along with seven digs. Leduc, a 6-foot-1 junior from Montreal, was switched from right-side hitter to the left side and racked up a game-high 15 kills, in addition to 10 digs on defence.
Also in double digit scoring for the Martlets was six-foot senior Charlotte Chouinard-Laliberte, who tallied 11 points. Normally a setter, she was moved up front to serve as the right-side hitter and produced 10 kills along with an ace.
Sophomore Selima Guidara , a native of Tunisia, started at setter and was a calming inluence. She had a stellar performance with 35 assists, along with five kills, one ace, four assisted blocks and a dozen digs.
The top scorer for Sherbrooke was Jael-Esther Telfort who was credited with 11.5 points.
Both teams have a day off to recover before returning to the court on Sunday. Sherbrooke (11-1) plays at UQTR (3-8), while Laval (7-4) travels to McGill (5-7) for a 1 p.m. tip-off at Love Competition Hall.
“We can enjoy the moment but have to start preparing for Laval,” added Béliveau.
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