Volleyball Canada – Chetumal, Mexico, October 28, 2018 – Heather Bansley (Waterdown, ON) and Brandie Wilkerson (Toronto, ON) convincingly defeated Caitlin Ledoux and Geena Urango of the United States 2-0 (21- 12, 21-13)  for gold at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour three-star Women’s Chetumal Open on Sunday.
 
Currently ranked number one in the FIVB beach volleyball women’s world rankings, this is Bansley and Wilkerson’s second gold medal in a row.  Last week they won the 4-star event in Las Vegas.
 
“It’s been long a two weeks, we’re exhausted, but we really wanted to win today, that was our goal coming here,” Bansley told FIVB.com. “We came here to get some valuable Olympic qualification points and this is a big win for us. The fans were amazing, they pushed us all the way to the final and it was a really special tournament.”
 
In the Chetumal bronze medal match today, Canadian up and comers Megan and Nicole McNamara (Vancouver, BC) were defeated by Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat of the U.S. 1-2.  The McNamaras finish a respectable fourth overall in Mexico.
 
Three other Canadian women’s teams (Gordon/Marcelle, Nagy/Cruickshank, Rancourt/Meunier-Bédard) finished ranked 25th in Mexico.
 
Other beach news…
 
Meanwhile in Martinique, Canadians Sophie Bukovec (Toronto, ON) and Alexandra Poletto (Toronto, ON) won silver at the sixth and final leg of the 2018 NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation) Beach Volleyball circuit after a 2-1 (21-18, 20-22, 15-12) loss to Katherine Spieler and Karissa Cook of the United States in the gold medal match.
 
Amanda Harnett (Burlington, ON) and Marie-Christine Lapointe (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC) take home the bronze medal after beating Puerto Rico in the match for third and fourth places.
 
On the men’s side, Adam Thompson and Ivan Reka were the top Canadian finishers, and William Hoey and Liam Kopp finished 8th.

• More info on the FIVB World Tour:  http://worldtour.2018.fivb.com/en
•  More info on NORCECA:  http://www.norceca.net

Photo: FIVB

Volleyball Canada
Jackie Skender
Director, Communications
613.794.7676
jskender@volleyball.ca