Canadian beach volleyball pair Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson secured a spot in the semifinals of the Montreal Elite16 tournament by defeating Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka with scores of 22-20 and 21-18 in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson outperformed their opponents in blocks and digs, setting the stage for a showdown against Thamela Galil and Victoria Tosta of Brazil in the upcoming semifinal match. The Brazilian duo overcame the American team of Julia Donlin and Lexy Denaburg in a hard-fought battle with scores of 21-17, 13-21, 18-16.
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Having clinched the 2023 and 2025 titles and an Olympic silver in between, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are eyeing another victory. Reflecting on their previous encounter with the Brazilian team during pool play, Humana-Paredes mentioned, “We are going to watch the video of them (Brazil) and see what they are doing well and see what we did well against them and bring that into tomorrow.”
Witness Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson take on Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova and Tīna Graudiņa at the Beach Pro Tour stop in Montreal.
Earlier that day, the Ontario duo of Sam Schachter and Jonathan Pickett caused a major upset by advancing to the men’s semifinals in the FIVB Beach Pro Tournament.
The 39th-ranked Canadian pair defeated the top-ranked team of Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson from Sweden with a 2-0 victory (21-19, 21-17) in the quarterfinals at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
Hailing from Richmond Hill and Wiarton, Ontario, respectively, Schachter and Pickett also eliminated Austria’s Alexander Horst and Paul Pascariuc earlier in the day.
Reflecting on their victory over the top-seeded team, Schachter stated, “I don’t think we did anything crazy or exceptional, we didn’t have as many flashy plays as in the other games, we just played good, basic volleyball at a really good level and were consistent. That was the difference today.”
The Canadian duo is set to face Brazil’s Renato Andrew Lima de Carvalho and Andre Stein in the semifinal match on Sunday morning.
