Sophie Silkes

Sophie Silkes

The McGill Martlets suffered a highly competitive straight-set defeat to the University of Montreal Carabins, 27-25, 25-21, 25-22, in the bronze medal game of the 20th annual McGill Martlet Invitational Volleyball Tournament. The Martlets led 21-17 in the first set, and 18-14 in the second, but were unable to find their killer instinct in front of a home crowd at the Sir Arthur Currie Gymnasium.

“We have to finish games,” said Head Coach Rachele Beliveau, “we get up in games and assume we are going to win, we have to work on finishing teams off,”  

McGill started well, leading 21-17 and forcing the Carabins to call a timeout to compose themselves. Montreal charged out of the break, though. Led by Marie-Sophie Nadeau, a six-foot-one freshman and all-tournament player, Montreal came from behind for a 27-25 first set victory. Nadeau made a couple key blocks in the closing points of the set to help push the Carabins ahead.

Despite the Carabins’ strong front line, the Martlets did not feel outplayed.

“Their blocking was good, but they weren’t that much bigger than us,” said power-hitter Emily Kyte. “That wasn’t the reason they won.”

The Martlets kept their composure to start the second set. They fought hard by getting to the net, going up 18-14. Again, Montreal overcame the deficit and went on an 11-3 run to close out the set 25-21.

The Carabins would not let go of their momentum and quickly took the lead in the third set. They did not look back, continuing to outplay McGill en route to a 25-22 set win and the bronze medal.

 “[It] would have been nice to take our first game of [the] season against them, especially in our own gym,” said fifth-year power hitter Amy Graham. “It was a shame. We have to work at finishing games off.”

Despite the straight-set loss, the Martlets still feel that they are the better team. Graham had a message for the victorious Carabins: “Next time, watch out!”

Kyte echoed the same sentiments. “It was definitely not our best effort today,” she said. “We are going to beat them the rest of the season, we should do a lot better.”  

Kyte, fellow power-hitter Olivia Grecu, middle Kelsey Irwin, and setter Marcela Mansure all stood out for the Marlets in the defeat.

The Martlet Invitational started off promisingly for McGill. They kicked off the tournament with a convincing straight-set victory over St. Mary’s on Friday. But the excitement was short lived as they were defeated 3-0 by Calgary later that night.

McGill played Dalhousie twice on Saturday. They won 3-1 in the first game to earn a rematch in the semi-finals. Dalhousie rested many of their players for the elimination game. A rested and confident Dalhousie team got the better of McGill 3-1 in the semifinals. The loss denied the Martlets the chance to play for the home tournament championship. McGill has not won the Martlet Invitational since 1997.

Dalhousie went on to beat Calgary in the gold medal game on Sunday afternoon, rallying from two sets to none to capture their first tournament title.

Although McGill’s inability to finish is a concern, their 8-7 record in CIS tournament play is encouraging for Beliveau and the rest of the team.

The Martlets will continue fine-tuning their team chemistry when they compete in the QSSF-AUS Interlocking tournament at Laval from October 29-31.