July 8, 2023: Two top-level North American teams went to battle in the women’s quarterfinals today at Gstaad, Switzerland, with the U.S. edging out Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes (both of Toronto) 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 15-11).
It was an intense centre-court match with Canada looking strong in the tie-break set taking an early lead (8-4), but the USA’s Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes went on a run to end the match and advance to the next round.
Canada led in attack (31-29) and blocks (4-3), but U.S. had two more aces and Canada lost more points from errors.
On Friday, Canada defeated home-crowd favourites Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland 2-0 (26-24, 21-19) to wrap up pool play. Canada had two wins and one loss (to Australia) in pool play.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were Canada’s only entry in Gstaad’s main draw.
For more information on the Beach Pro Tour, which counts towards Olympic qualification points, see the Beach Volleyball World web site: https://en.volleyballworld.com/beachvolleyball/competitions/beach-pro-tour/
This year, Canada will host two Beach Pro Tour events – a Challenge event in Edmonton (July 20-23) and an Elite 16 tournament in Montreal from July 26 to 30.
Photo: VolleyballWorld
Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676
Viewing Guide
- VNL (men): After today’s loss to Poland, Canada must quickly turn around for tomorrow (today in Canada!!) – CAN vs CHN at 11 pm EDT Saturday night on VBTV & CBC sports.
- U21 Men’s World Championship: The matches are streamed on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/videoFIVB Click here for the match schedule & results.