Canada will play for an Olympic medal in beach volleyball
Canada is moving on after a tense quarter-final win in the Olympic women’s beach volleyball tournament earlier this morning.
The Canadian duo of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes stayed hot after their round-of-16 upset against the USA, defeating the Spanish team of Daniela Mendoza Alvarez and Tania Moreno Matveeva in the quarter-finals to advance to the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament.
Canada was the favourite heading into the match, ranked fourth in the world by the International Volleyball Federation, while Spain came in as the underdogs as the 16th-ranked team.
The emotion of moving on was captured by Canada closing out the second and deciding set by a score of 21-18. Both Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes knew the significance of the moment.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are headed to the Olympic semi-finals.
First time ever for a Canadian women’s beach volleyball team 🏐 pic.twitter.com/tvkkCnS8Q2
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) August 7, 2024
It was an agonizingly close opening set as Spain and Canada traded points back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. It was 15-15 at the midway point of the set before Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were able to open up a multi-point lead.
The Canadians were able to ride that momentum to take the opening set by a score of 21-18.
Volleyball de plage 🏐 : les Canadiennes 🇨🇦 remporte la 1re manche 21-18 face à l’Espagne 🇪🇸!@VBallCanada @BrandieWilks @melissa_hp10 #paris2024#rcsports pic.twitter.com/dq9yBi6oAz
— Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) August 7, 2024
The second set was equally as tense as Canada had to erase an early Spanish lead, but the blood was already in the water for the Canadians.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes will now have a chance to capture Canada’s first-ever medal in women’s beach volleyball. The country does have one bronze medal under its Olympic belt in the sport, but that was won on the men’s side during the Atlanta 1996 Games.
This is the first time a Canadian women’s beach volleyball team has advanced to an Olympic semi-final. Canada’s Tokyo 2020 team of Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Spain in that tournament.
Next up for Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes in the semi-finals will be the Swiss duo of Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart, which is set to go tomorrow at 11 am ET/ 8 am PT.