Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Toronto, Ontario enjoy a remarkable run at the Elite 16 Women’s Beach Volleyball event in Doha, Qatar. This week in West Asia, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson reached the semifinals of the first major beach volleyball tournament of the season.
In the last two days, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have beaten two formidable Brazilian teams. In the round of 16 on Thursday they defeated Brazilian duo Agatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti 16:21, 21:17, 15:11. Bednarczuk was a silver medalist for Brazil at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Then, in Friday’s quarterfinals, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson defeated Brazilian duo Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Duda Santos Lisboa, winners of the 2022 Women’s Beach Volleyball World Cup, 21-19, 21-19.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson finished second in Pool D with a record of two wins and one loss. They defeated German duo Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann 21-17, 21-17 and Chinese duo Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi 21 :18, 21:18.
In the semifinals, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will now face the Latvian duo Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova from Latvia. So far, Latvians are the only team to have defeated Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, as they won 10-21, 24-22, 15-13 to win Pool D. Canada dominated the first half but couldn’t maintain the momentum in the next two sets. In the other semi-final, the US duo Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes will face the Brazilians Carol Solberg and Barbara Seixas.
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