Volleyball Canada – Canadians finish early at Vienna Major Tournament – Vienna, Austria, August 3, 2018 – After recent successes, it was a tough week for Canada’s beach volleyball teams at the FIVB Beach World Tour A1 Vienna Major in Austria.

Going in as the top-seeded women’s team of the tournament, Melissa Humana-Paredes (Toronto) and Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON) were eliminated by Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina of Russia in the first round of playoffs (finishing 17th overall).  The Russians also beat Heather Bansley (Waterdown, ON) and Brandie Wilkerson (Toronto) in pool play, with the Canadians uncharacteristically not advancing from their pool to finish 25th. Both of these Canadian teams have had podium success this year, most recently finishing 1st and 3rd at the Gstaad Major in July.

Canadian Olympian Jamie Broder (Victoria, BC) and partner Taylor Pischke (Winnipeg, MB) also finished 25th.

On the men’s side, Grant O’Gorman (Toronto) and Ben Saxton (Calgary) lost to Poland’s Michal Bryl and Grzegorz Fijalek 2-0 in the first round of playoffs today, to finish 17th. Sam Pedlow (Barrie, ON) and Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) were 25th overall after losing to Austria and Russia in pool play.
 
For full results, see http://worldtour.2018.fivb.com/en/595

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