Humana-Paredes & Wilkerson blaze past Spanish duo to secure historic semifinal appearance

For the first time ever, Canada will play for a medal in women’s beach volleyball at the Olympics.

Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson won their third consecutive elimination game, this time taking down Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno of Spain, 21-18, 21-18 in the quarterfinal round.

“When we got together we wanted to make history together,” said Humana-Paredes following the match.

That’s exactly what they did on Tuesday. Wilkerson’s size at the net posed problems for Spain, and Humana-Paredes was consistently brilliant in her placements. They have now made Canadian history and are a win away from playing for gold at Paris 2024.

The two volleyball players had ghosts to extinguish when it came to the quarterfinal round at the Olympics. 

Wilkerson made it to the quarterfinals of Tokyo 2020 with former partner Heather Bansley. Humana-Paredes and her then-partner, Sarah Pavan, also made it to the quarterfinals three years ago. The two pairs were poised to meet up in the semifinal, but their Olympic run ended one round too early.

At the time, it matched Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in women’s beach volleyball.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were very familiar with each other’s games – the two first played together on the hard court at York University in 2010. In 2022, they decide to join forces with their sights set on Paris.

After their partnership flourished on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson entered the Olympic tournament third in the world rankings.

“We were teammates way back when, then we were rivals, now we’re teammates again – so we have both sides of that foundation in our relationship,” Humana-Paredes said.

They suffered two defeats in group play to finish the preliminary round with a record of 1-2, but qualified to the knockout stage through a win in the lucky loser stage.

“I don’t think there’s ever a moment where we didn’t trust each other,” Wilkerson said, speaking the early struggles in Paris. “If anything we trust each other so much, that we’re like, ‘Yeah, we’ll figure it out.’ But I think it took some shaking of each other, to kind of (be) like ‘let’s go.’”

The lucky loser win set up a highly-anticipated Round of 16 match with World No. 2 Kristin Nuss and Taryn Kloth of the U.S., and the Canadians took care of business.

READ: Huge upset win sends Humana-Paredes & Wilkerson to beach volleyball quarterfinals

Things got off to a good start against Spain in the quarterfinal as Wilkerson looked strong at the net. Although it was close throughout, Canada gained a little separation by attacking Spain on the second touch, and catching them off-guard.

Humana-Paredes, poised and controlled in her returns, was able to get four digs, and set up her teammate for seven attack points in the opening set. Canada won the first set 21-18. 

“That was the first time we’ve ever played that team, so there was a lot of improvising happening in the game,” Humana-Paredes said. “You could see us honestly just finding that rhythm.”

Spain jumped out to an early lead in the second set as Daniela Alvarez got into a rhythm with her hitting. Canada weathered the storm midway through the set and took a 14-12 lead.

A few points later, Humana-Paredes set up Wilkerson for a huge hit to make it 19-17 Canada, and then Wilkerson came back with a block at the net to force match point.

On the second match point, Humana-Paredes rolled an attack shot over the outstretched hands of Alvarez, punching Canada’s ticket to the medal round.

In the semifinals, Canada will need to stop another blazing hot pair, Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart. The Swiss duo swept their group stage and have won both their knockout round games in straight sets.

The match will take place Thursday at 11 a.m ET / 5:00 p.m. local.