Volleyball Canada – Four out of five Canadian beach volleyball teams in main draw of the US$600,000 Fort Lauderdale Major finished with top ten rankings.

The top finisher for Canada was the team of Melissa Humana-Paredes of Toronto and Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ont.
 
Ranked second in the tournament, Humana-Paredes and Pavan went undefeated in pool play and playoffs, but fell to the host country team of Summer Ross and Brooke Sweat under the lights on Friday night, 0-2 (20-22, 23-25) in the quarterfinals.
 
“Honestly, kudos to Brooke and Summer, they played an outstanding match,” said Humana-Paredes. “We were definitely outworked a little bit. It took us a little bit to get into our groove. I had lots of transition opportunities I didn’t take care of. We were getting a lot of touches but we weren’t executing them…. There’s still a lot of season left. Early in the tournament I thought we managed the elements really well.”
 
Sarah Pavan said: “I’m just disappointed because I know that we could have played better. We’ve found ourselves in situations like that a lot before and we managed to come out on top, and I know we have it within us and we’re the type of competitors that dig deep in those times and find a way to win. Unfortunately, tonight we didn’t.”
 
The other Canadian entries on the women’s side (Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson; Taylor Pischke and Jamie Broder) were eliminated in the playoffs yesterday to finish ninth overall.
 
On the men’s side, Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Sam Pedlow (Barrie, ON) had a good run, beating World silver medalists Doppler and Horst of Austria in the first round of playoffs, but then falling to Herrera and Gavira of Spain in a three-set match in the second round on Friday.
 
Grant O’Gorman and Ben Saxton were eliminated in the first round of playoffs. 

The competition continues to March 04 on the beach at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
 
Canadian women:
Humana-Paredes/Pavan – 5th
Bansley/Wilkerson – 9th
Pischke/Broder – 9th

Canadian men:
Schachter/Pedlow- 9th
O’Gorman/Saxton – 17th
 
Web:
www.beachmajorseries.com
www.fivb.com

Media contact: Jackie Skender
mobile: 1.613.794.7676