Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes lost a tight quarterfinal match to Americans Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes at the Elite16 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour stop in Gstaad, Switzerland, on Saturday.
The No. 5-ranked American team trailed through much of their 2-1 victory (20-22, 21-18, 15-11), but went on timely runs to defeat Canada.
The American duo is looking to secure their second win on the BPT Elite16 tour after their victory in Tepic, Mexico, a March tournament that marked the second outing of the season together for Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes.
The Canadian pair went 2-1 in Pool B play in Gstaad with straight-sets victories over Latvia and Switzerland, narrowly edging Australia for the top spot in the group despite falling 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-13) to the No. 2-ranked team on Thursday.
The first-place finish set up a quarterfinal match with the 2-1 American squad that finished second in Pool C.
WATCH | Canada falls to U.S.:
Watch Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson face USA’s Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes in the quarterfinals at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 from Gstaad, Switzerland
Neither team could gather much momentum in the first set until the U.S. rattled off four straight points to make it 19-17, forcing Canada to take a timeout.
The Canadian duo then proceeded to take five of the next six points to win the opening set 22-20.
Canada held the lead through much of the second set, but Hughes and Cheng dug deep with four straight points to bring the game to within one at break, 11-10.
Humana-Paredes starred early in the second half, with a dig followed by a spike to make it 14-11, and a deft touch at the net to elevate the ball over Cheng and bring the score to 16-12.
The U.S. once again battled back to tie the game at both 17 and 18, and Cheng made a huge defensive play of her own to give the U.S. their first lead at 19-18, followed by an attack to move within one point of the second set victory, which they earned on the next rally to take the game 21-18.
U.S. takes over in 3rd set
The winner-take-all set was was characterized by unforced errors by both sides early, including Cheng misplaying a serve for the Americans, and Wilkerson botching a serve of her own, with Canada holding a 6-4 lead before switching sides.
Humana-Paredes made a huge play to put Canada up 8-4, diving to make yet another dig before dropping a shot cross-court to earn Canada’s third consecutive point and take a commanding lead, doing it once again to make the score 9-6 with a shot that just nicked the line.
As they’d done throughout the entirety of the match, the Americans kept things close, tying the game at 10 heading into the final break.
A sensational rally with the Americas already up 12-11 proved to be the swing point of the match, with Cheng and Hughes simply outlasting the Canadian duo with multiple digs.
The U.S. will now move on to the semifinals to play the German pair of Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann – a team they have already dropped a match to in pool play.
The next stop on tour is in Espinho, Portugal beginning on July 13.
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