
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Toronto, Ontario are enjoying a notable run at the Elite 16 Women’s Beach Volleyball event in Doha, Qatar. This week in West Asia, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have reached the semifinals of the first significant beach volleyball tournament of the season.
In the last two days, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have beaten two formidable Brazilian squads. In the round of 12 on Thursday, they defeated the Brazilian duo of Agatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti 16-21, 21-17, 15-11. Bednarczuk was a silver medallist for Brazil at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Then in the quarterfinals on Friday, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson beat the Brazilian duo of Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Duda Santos Lisboa, the 2022 Women’s World Beach Volleyball Championship winners, 21-19, 21-19.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson went through Pool D in second place with a record of two wins and one loss. They defeated the German duo of Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann 21-17, 21-17, and the Chinese duo of Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi 21-18, 21-18.
In the semifinals, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will now face the Latvian duo of Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia. So far the Latvians are the only team to beat Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson as they won 10-21, 24-22, 15-13 to win Pool D. Canada dominated the first half but could not keep momentum for the next two sets. The other semifinal has the United States duo of Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes against Brazil’s Carol Solberg and Barbara Seixas.