Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Toronto, Ontario have reached the semifinals of the Elite16 in Ostrava, Czech Republic on Sunday. In quarterfinal action on Saturday, it was quite frankly an impressive performance for Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, as they defeated Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti of Italy 22-20, 21-12.
Wilkerson had 14 points for Canada as she had 12 attack points and two block points. Humana-Paredes had 12 points for the Canadian team, with all dozen points coming via the attack.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have won all four of their matches in Ostrava this week. They won Pool D with a perfect record of three wins and zero losses. The Canadians defeated Barbora Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova of the Czech Republic 21-12, 23-21 on Thursday, and then Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam of the Netherlands, 21-19, 21-15, and Joana Mader and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland 23-21, 21-15 on Friday.
Next up for the Canadian team is Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia in the semifinals. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson beat Graudina and Samoilova three times in 2023 with the wins coming in Doha, Qatar; Gstaad, Switzerland, and Jurmala, Latvia. The other semifinal has Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the United States against Eduarda Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil.
