Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes sweep 5 teams to collectively capture 1st beach volleyball title
Four months ago, their first Beach Pro Tour event as volleyball partners ended in a quarterfinal. On Sunday, in just their seventh tournament together, Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes became champions for the first time.
The third-seeded Canadians won 12 straight sets and posted their fifth consecutive sweep to capture the women’s title over No. 11 Esmée Böbner and Switzerland’s Zoé Vergé-Dépré at the Challenger event in Jurmala, Latvia.
Wilkerson took a 21-17, 21-17 win with a monster block, one of her five in the game en route to being named the tournament’s best block.
“I’m so happy,” she said in a story on the Volleyball World website. “I had the best time with Melissa. She is the ultimate superstar.
“This team has been working hard so it’s so good to see that [lead to] a gold medal.”
On June 4, the Toronto duo won bronze at the Ostrava Elite16 tournament in the Czech Republic.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes led 26-23 in offensive points in Sunday’s gold medal game, beating their opponent 5-1 and committing fewer errors.
“It was a very solid week of consistent play by us. We stuck together, overcame some adversity and really enjoyed playing every point,” Humana-Paredes told Volleyball Canada.
“It’s been a long time coming and we’re excited to get home to celebrate with our loved ones and get ready for the next one.”
Joined forces last October
For Humana-Paredes, Sunday’s title win was her second consecutive win in Jurmala after beating Brazil’s Bárbara Seixas and Carol Solberg with then-partner Sarah Pavan a year ago to end a drought of more than two years.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes ended their five-year beach volleyball partnership three months later, with the latter being paired with Wilkerson by Volleyball Canada last October as the governing body looked ahead to the Paris Olympics next summer.
Before teaming up, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes advanced to the finals of the AVP Pro Tour’s Chicago Open last September 4 in their professional beach volleyball debut. The 30-year-old lost two sets against one of rising American stars Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth before Wilkerson parted ways with her partner Sophie Bukovec, who was injured but watched the game in Chicago.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were teammates in their 2010-2011 rookie year at York University in Toronto. Before graduating, they played varsity indoor volleyball and training beach at the same time. Eventually, they took to the beach full-time and were named alternates for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Earlier Sunday, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes defeated home country favorites and top seed Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) in the semifinals.
You can never feel like you’re in control or you lose it instantly, so every point we played like it was the first in the game.—Brandie Wilkerson
Samoilova and Graudina, the 2020 Olympic gold medalists and reigning European champions, won bronze over Brazil’s Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes in a tiebreak (21-11, 20-22, 15-13).
The only set loss for the Canadians came in their tournament opener on Friday against 22nd seed Americans Kelley Kolinske and Hailey Harward.
They then defeated Italians Margherita Bianchin and Claudia Scampoli in pool play, Lithuanian tandem Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte in the round of 16, and Chinese qualifiers Dong Jie and Wang Fan in the quarterfinals.
With Canada tied 9–9 in the second set against Böbner and Vergé-Dépré, Wilkerson took over the net to help her team forward. She had 18 points in the set, as did Böbner, who added five aces.
“You can never feel like you’re in control or you lose it right away,” said Wilkerson, “so every point we played like it was the first in the game.”
