Brandie Wilkerson and Sophie Bukovec of Toronto, Ontario have reached the semifinals in women’s action of the 2022 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Rome, Italy. On Friday, Wilkerson and Bukovec beat an Italian squad that had home court advantage. The Torontonians beat the Italian duo of Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi 21-15, 21-12 in one of their most impressive performances at the World Beach Volleyball Championships to date.
Wilkerson scored 16 of Canada’s points, while Bukovec scored 15. Bukovec had 13 points off the attack and two aces, while Wilkerson had 12 points off the attack and four points off of blocks. Canada was also able to keep errors to a minimum. Wilkerson and Bukovec only made five combined errors, while Menegatti and Gottardi made 13 combined errors.
In the semifinals on Saturday at noon MT, Bukovec and Wilkerson will play the German duo of Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann. The other semifinal has Duda Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos of Brazil against Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland.
The men’s semifinals will also take place Saturday. There, Chaim Schalk and Theodore Brunner of the United States will face Renato Carvalho and Vitor Felipe of Brazil, and Anders Bernsten Mol and Christian Sandlie Sorum of Norway will face Andre Loyola Stein and George Wanderley of Brazil.
