WINNIPEG – The No. 5 seed Montreal Carabins came back from seven points down in both the first and third sets, shocking the No. 1 seed Alberta Pandas 3-0 on Saturday at IGAC in the national semifinal.
 
The Montreal victory also snapped a 22-game win streak for the Pandas, who will play for bronze tomorrow against rival UBC in a rematch of the Canada West championship, and last year's national final.
 
The Pandas erupted to a 19-12 lead in set one, with six different players recording a kill.
 
All-Canadian setter Justine Kolody – a Winnipeg native with tons of local support in the crowd – ran the offence brilliantly, finishing with 12 assists in the set and 33 in the match. Laila Johnston was the main catalyst, with four kills while hitting over .500.
 
But the Carabins pushed back on the strength of service pressure. Milica Djordjevic put down three of her game-high five aces in the comeback, including back-to-back to end the set with the game tied at 23.
 
Montreal continued to wreak havoc at the service line in set two. They took a 15-10 lead on the strength of three more aces, but the Pandas pushed back.
 
Mackenzie Pool stuff blocked a Florence Cloutier attack to narrow the deficit to 16-14, and she followed that up shortly after with an ace to make the score 19-18.
 
But Montreal was just as strong on the block. With the score 22-21 Montreal, Cloutier combined with Julia Lanthier for a denial at the net, and Djordjevic added a solo right after set set up match point. Montreal took the 2-0 lead two points later on a Pandas service error.
 
Abby Guezen kick started Alberta's offence early in the third. She had back to back kills, and tipped an attack just over the block shortly after to give Alberta a 7-2 lead. Guezen led her side with ten kills overall while hitting .250.
 
Montreal narrowed the lead, but Alberta had an answer, going on a 6-1 run to make the score 18-12 following an assisted block from Ronnie Dickson and Pool, who combined for five assisted blocks in the game.
 
But the Carabins refused to relent. They eventually tied the game at 20 on a Florence Lapointe block, and it was back and forth from there.
 
Alberta had match point at 24-23 following a Guezen kill, but co-captain Myriam Kayser-Tourigny subbed in at the perfect time and made a difference.
 
She put down a brilliant 3-1 kill from the middle, to tie the game at 24, and Montreal got match point at 26-25 on Sarah McGlashan's ace, the 12^th of the game for the Carabins. Djordjevic then went cross court to send Montreal to the gold medal game.
 
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