Canada will play for an Olympic medal in women’s beach volleyball.
The Canadian duo of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Parades stayed hot after their round-of-16 upset against the USA, defeating the Spanish team of Daniela Mendoza Alvarez and Tania Matveeva Tania Moreno in the quarterfinals to advance to the semi-final 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.
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-Parades 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 just as tense as the first as it was Spain who jumped out to an early lead. Canada, however, was able to weather that storm and come back strong to take the set 21-18 to secure the straight-set victory.
Wilkerson and Humana-Parades 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 has advanced to an Olympic semi-final. Canada’s Tokyo 2020 team of Humana-Parades and Sarah Pavan were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Spain in that tournament.
Next up for Wilkerson and Humana-Parades in the semi-finals will be the Swiss duo of Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart, which is set to go tomorrow.