News

Pandas bite too big, McGill will play for bronze

Published: 3 March 2012

PHOTO OF GENEVIEVE PLANTE (#10) BY CAMERON DUNLOP, COURTESY McMASTER UNIVERSITY

HAMILTON, Ont. -- The top-seeded Alberta Pandas set up of an all-Canada West final against archrival UBC at the CIS women's volleyball championship thanks to a 25-16, 25-16, 25-23 semifinal win over the No. 5 McGill Martlets at McMaster University's Burridge Gymnasium, Saturday night.

Championship web site: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wvball/index

Left side Whitney Matheson of Edmonton recorded a game-high 11 kills in the match and added a team-high 11 digs. Alena Omelchenko of Kazakhstan reached double-digit numbers again with 10 more kills for the victorious Pandas. Setter Jaki Ellis of Mississauga, Ont. recorded a total of 26 assists in the match.

For McGill, Geneviève Plante had a team-high 10 points. Marie-Christine Lapointe of St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. recorded a game-high 14 digs.

The Martlets will take on the Montreal Carabins in a rematch of the RSEQ finals at 1 p.m. to look at capturing their first CIS medal in school history. The best of three series in the RSEQ finals last weekend ended in 3-1, 3-0 victories for the Carabins.

"Our goal is still go out and get a medal," said head coach Rachèle Béliveau, whose program finished sixth in 1997 in its only previous appearance at the tournament. "We're going to work hard for that. We've played Montreal many many times this year so we know them and hopefully we get the best out of it."

In the first, the No. 1 Pandas got off to a good start, gaining a three point lead at 9-6. Throughout the set, their lead would continue to grow to as large as nine as Alberta finished off the first with a score of 25-16.

The same fate would be had for the Martlets in the second set as the Canada West champions continued to dominate. The score would end 25-16 in favour of the Pandas with Whitney Matheson of Edmonton, Alta. leading all players with seven points thus far.

The Martlets would finally put some pressure on the No. 1 Pandas in the third. Leading at 6-5, the teams battled it out early on, trading leads until Alberta went on a run to build their lead to four at 14-10. Heading into the technical timeout up by three, the Pandas would extend that lead to five at 20-15. McGill wouldn't go down without a fight through, as they came within one at 24-23 forcing Alberta to call a timeout. The top-seeded Panda's would refocus and score the last point, advancing to the CIS finals for the first time in five years.

Alberta hasn't played for CIS gold since defeating Laval 3-1 in the 2007 title match.

On Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern - live on Cable 14 in Hamilton and on ssncanada.ca - the Pandas will take on the No. 2 Thunderbirds in a rematch of last Saturday's Canada West final, won in five sets by Alberta (18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13). UBC, which is looking to claim a remarkable fifth straight CIS banner, booked its ticket for the gold-medal match with a 3-1 defeat of Montreal.

Should the Pandas triumph tomorrow, they would tie UBC for most CIS titles all-time, with eight. The two storied programs have faced off twice over the years in the national final with Alberta prevailing on both occasions, 3-1 in 1999 and 3-2 in 1997

"We have a great challenge ahead of us with the T-Birds to win the championship," said Alberta head coach Laurie Eisler. "We are the No. 1 seed, but we know they are the favourites, everyone is thinking its there's to win. They've proven over the years the years that they know how to win. That's something we are striving to do and we would love to be the team that ends there run. Beating them is the greatest challenge that's out there right now."

STAT LEADERS

Boxscore: Alberta-McGill

Alberta

Kills: Whitney Matheson (11), Alena Omelchenko (10)

Points: Whitney Matheson (11.5), Alena Omelchenko (11.5)

Blocks: Lia Stang (3)

Digs: Whitney Matheson (11), Erin Walsh (10)

Service aces: Caitlin Buckell (4)

Assists: Jaki Ellis (26)

Player of the match: Alyssa Jones

McGill

Kills: Geneviève Plante (10)

Points: Geneviève Plante (10)

Blocks: Marcela Mansure (0.5), Jacqueline Ng (0.5)

Digs: Marie Lapointe (14)

Service aces: Kavia Mateus (2)

Assists: Marcela Mansure (19)

Player of the match: Geneviève Plante

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE & RESULTS

NOTE: Live webcast of all games on SSN Canada.

NOTE: Live broadcast of championship semifinals and Sunday games on Cable 14 (Hamilton).

Friday, March 2

13:00 Quarter-final #1: Montreal 3, Trinity Western 1 (25-22, 11-25, 25-21, 25-23)

15:00 Quarter-final #2: UBC 3, Queen's 0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-16)

18:00 Quarter-final #3: McGill 3, Saint Mary's 2 (26-24, 25-18, 20-25, 23-25, 15-13)

20:00 Quarter-final #4: Alberta 3, McMaster 1 (25-19, 25-15, 24-26, 25-18)

Saturday, March 3

13:00 Consolation #1: Trinity Western 3, Queen's 0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-23)

15:00 Consolation #2: Saint Mary's 3, McMaster 2 (24-26, 14-25, 25-9, 25-21, 15-7)

18:00 Semifinal #1: UBC 3, Montreal 1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22)

20:00 Semifinal #2: Alberta 3, McGill 0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-23)

Sunday, March 4

11:00 5th place: Trinity Western vs. Saint Mary's

13:00 Bronze medal: Montreal vs. McGill

16:00 Championship final: UBC vs. Alberta

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For more information contact:

Cam Dunlop, McMaster, (905) 741-8767

Michel Bélanger, CIS, (613) 447-6334

Earl Zukerman, McGill, (514) 398-7012

MCGILL at. ALBERTA
@ Hamilton Ontario (Burridge Gymnasium)
3/3/2012 at 8:00pm

McGill
0

Alberta
3

In Progress - 3rd	1	2	3	Score
McGill (1-0)	16	16	23	0
Alberta (1-0)	25	25	25	3

Set	K	E	TA	PCT
McGill
1	5	5	24	.000
2	6	9	22	-.136
3	12	7	46	.109

Set	K	E	TA	PCT
Alberta
1	12	3	35	.257
2	15	3	25	.480
3	13	5	49	.163

			-- Attack --					-- Serve --				-- Block --
McGill
#	Player	SP	K	E	TA	K%	A	SA	SE	RE	DIGS	BS	BA	BE	BHE	PTS
1	Kristina Pavlovic	2	2	5	13	-.231	0	0	1	1	5	0	0	1	0	2.0
2	Daphnée-Maude André-Morin *	3	0	1	1	-1.000	1	1	0	3	8	0	0	0	0	1.0
3	Emily Kyte	1	1	0	3	.333	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	1.0
4	Victoria Pelletier	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
5	Rebecca Canam	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
6	Marcela Mansure	3	1	1	3	.000	19	0	0	0	6	0	1	0	1	1.5
9	Marie-Christine Lapointe	3	3	4	17	-.059	1	0	1	0	14	0	0	2	0	3.0
10	Geneviève Plante	3	10	5	25	.200	0	0	1	1	9	0	0	0	0	10.0
12	Jacqueline Ng	3	1	1	9	.000	0	0	3	0	4	0	1	0	0	1.5
13	Virginie Hebert	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
14	Kaiva Mateus	3	5	4	21	.048	0	2	2	0	5	0	0	1	0	7.0
Totals			23	21	92	.022	21	3	8	7	53	0	2	4	1	27.0

			-- Attack --					-- Serve --				-- Block --
Alberta
#	Player	SP	K	E	TA	K%	A	SA	SE	RE	DIGS	BS	BA	BE	BHE	PTS
1	Lia Stang	3	4	3	13	.077	0	1	1	0	2	2	2	3	0	8.0
2	Amy Kowalchuk	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
4	Whitney Matheson	3	11	1	25	.400	0	0	5	0	11	0	1	0	0	11.5
6	Caitlin Buckell	3	2	0	11	.182	2	4	3	0	6	0	3	1	0	7.5
7	Alena Omelchenko	3	10	1	25	.360	0	1	3	3	6	0	1	1	0	11.5
8	Alyssa Jones	3	9	2	22	.318	10	1	1	0	8	0	0	0	0	10.0
9	Erin Walsh *	3	0	1	1	-1.000	1	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	0.0
11	Jaki Ellis	3	4	3	12	.083	26	0	4	0	9	0	3	0	1	5.5
Totals			40	11	109	.266	39	7	17	3	52	2	10	5	1	54.0