 |  |
QUARTER FINAL #4 CIS championship: No. 3 Laval clinches semi-final berth in front of home crowd
| UNB | Laval |
|---|---|
|
K:
Jillian Blanchard - 15
B: Tanya Paulin - 4 D: Monica Jones - 13 SA: Erica Hay - 3 |
K:
Marie-Ch. Mondor - 22
B: Donna Ouellet - 3 D: Melanie Savoie - 14 SA: 2 Players (#3, #5 - 3) |
| TEAM STATISTICS | UNB | Laval |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting % | .189 | .280 |
| Blocks | 7.0 | 5.0 |
| Digs | 34 | 57 |
| Aces | 6 | 9 |
Photo credit Yan Dublet
QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – The third-seeded Laval and tournament
host University Rouge et Or defeated the No. 6 UNB Varsity Reds in
four sets of 27-25, 23-25, 25-15 and 25-17 in the last
quarter-final game of the CIS women’s volleyball championship
Saturday evening before a crowd of 1,597 fans at PEPS Stadium.
Championship website (live webcasts): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wvball
With the win, the crowd favourites will face No. 2 Trinity Western
Spartans in Saturday’s second semi-final at 8 p.m. The Quebec
champion Rouge et Or claimed CIS bronze a year ago in Edmonton.
Atlantic conference champion UNB will face Western Ontario at 2
p.m. on the consolation side.
Laval started strong building early leads of 11-2 and 15-5 in the
first set, but the V-Reds showed tremendous character to battle
back and tie the score at 19-19. Shortly after, the Reds even took
the lead 22-21 and 24-23, but the Rouge et Or fought back and
captured the set, 27-25.
The second set was neck to neck throughout, but this time, UNB
stood by and tied the game at 1-1 with a 25-23 win.
Laval seemed to regain confidence from this moment, boosted by the
crowd cheering for their favourites. Strong in the first few
exchanges of the third set, Alain Pelletier’s troop forged a
quick 10-4 lead, en route to a 25-15 win.
Tight in its first half, the fourth set changed when the score was
15-13 for Laval. The Rouge et Or were then lifted by the fans,
ending the game with a 25-17 win.
“Last week, we told ourselves to live in the moment. It was
well done, but it was perhaps not our best
‘moment’,” said Laval’s head coach Alain
Pelletier. “That sentence will be interesting because
tomorrow is another day. We must go by phases; we must take it one
step at a time.”
“We were down 11-2 in the first set, so it obviously took us
a while to get going but I was proud of my girls afterwards,”
analyzed UNB’s head coach John Richard. “There were
some ugly leads there, but we battled back and somehow got a game
point. After that we played well for about an hour and then our
service reception just broke down. You can’t give that team
any easy point, they got so many weapons. That was the difference
for sure.”
Mélanie Savoie was selected player of the game for the
winners. The right side hitter had 14 kills, 14 digs and hit 3
aces. Marie-Christine Mondor also did very well with 22 kills and
an efficiency rate of 38.5%. She also had 10 digs and two aces.
For the Varsity Reds, Jill Blanchard was named player of the game
with 15 kills and a 35.7% efficiency rent.
STATS
LEADERS
Laval
Kills: Marie-Christine Mondor (22), Mélanie Savoie (14)
Points: Marie-Christine Mondor (24), Mélanie Savoie (18)
Blocks: Donna Ouellet (1.5)
Digs: Mélanie Savoie (14), Joany L.-Bellemare (13)
Service aces: Sarah Létourneau-Lévesque,
Mélanie Savoie (3)
Assists: Sarah Létourneau-Lévesque (48)
Player of the match: Mélanie Savoie
UNB
Kills: Jill Blanchard (15), Erica Hay (9)
Points: Jill Blanchard (16.5), Erica Hay (12.5)
Blocks: Tanya Paulin (2.5)
Digs: Monica Jones (13)
Service aces: Erica Hay (3)
Assists: Amanda Bakker (32)
Player of the match: Jill Blanchard
CHAMPIONSHIP
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
NOTE: Live webcast of all matches at http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wvball
Friday, March 4
Quarter-final #1: UBC 3, Sherbrooke 1 (25-13, 25-18, 23-25,
25-12)
Quarter-final #2: Alberta 3, Montreal 1 (18-25, 25-23, 25-20,
25-22)
Quarter-final #3: Trinity Western 3, Western Ontario 2 (25-23,
19-25, 25-18, 19-25, 15-8)
Quarter-final #4: Laval 3, UNB 1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-17)
Saturday, March 5
12:00 Consolation #1: Sherbrooke vs. Montreal
14:00 Consolation #2: Western Ontario vs. UNB
18:00 Semifinal #1: UBC vs. Alberta
20:00 Semifinal #2: Trinity Western vs. Laval
Sunday, March 6
11:00 5th place
13:00 Bronze medal
16:30 Championship final
-CIS-
